What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy Page #3

so I was sitting,

looking at my father behind the window,

Hi. Nicki, it's a pleasure to see you,

soon we win celebrate a really great

Christmas together at Schoberhof. "

And I was thinking, "Why is he lying?

"Why is he lying?

He knows that he will be hanged. "

And I was unbelievable disappointed.

My father he was staying

four years in the mountains, always hidden.

My mother brought him food and equipment

for the winter, for the summer and so on.

My mother was of course still a Nazi lady

so when the American soldiers

moved into our house

they asked my mother, "Are you a Nazi?"

And my mother said, "Yes, I am Nazi. "

And then they said, "Oh, you're the first person

we met who said she is a Nazi. "

- 80...

And she was proud?

Yes, of course she was proud.

She was convinced that my father was right

and did the right things,

never one word that she spoke bad about him.

Then he came to live with us,

I think it was two weeks or so

and she said to us, smaller children,

that's an uncle from South America

or whatever.

He had a little mustache

and, hmm, he came up to see us

when we were sleeping in our beds,

I remember.

And that is the only contact

with my father I can remember.

He had good connections to the Vatican.

He found refuge

in some religious institution there

and, hmm. he died very quick there.

- Oh, my God.

- Here she is,

the queen of Poland, my mother.

It was painted in 1935'

- Did they still love each other then?

- Yes.

Or some adultery,

but not so heavy ones, lighter.

And when it was over

it was a big glory of the Frank family,

she said, "OK, now it's over.

"Now I have to work my ass off

to nourish these children,"

and she died at the age of 63,

completely worn out.

A very clear picture about the Frank family

and what I have done

and, hmm, what they have connected to

when I saw the first pictures, photographs

in the newspapers, hmm,

there I saw mountains of corpses

and also children of my age then.

And it was always written, underlined, Poland.

And what happened to me is that,

you really get the shock

because I always thought Poland is ours.

Of course I felt guilty

because of m y father somehow.

Of course, because you knew them.

More or less,

it started all this horrible things,

came into public what happened

and it was not...

After immediately...

Immediately after the war there was...

Nobody talk about this.

Talked and wrote.

The difficulties started later.

My mother wanted me

to become a lawyer, of course,

like my father.

She was very disappointed

because when I said,

"No, finished. I don't study any more.

I go into the woods. Bye-bye, Mother. "

And of course she was very shocked.

Then she got this professor friend

and this friend said to me,

"Oh, Horst, you don't have to do anything,

"you will be professor/doctor.

"You just have to inscribe

in Salzburg at the university,"

and there you had

all these friends of my father's

and well of course I refused this thing

and I said, "I must find my own way. "

I was closing up and I was very insecure.

At this certain moment I said to my friend,

that I want to serve somebody,

I want to... Like a servant.

I really, I have to be of any use to somebody.

And then they said, "Oh, I know

a crazy painter, he needs somebody. "

When I saw Hundertwasser the first time

I knew that he would need me

and! would go along with him quite well

because he was also a shy person like me

and somehow that he was Jewish that was

of course very good for my feelings too.

Then I went sailing the boat to New Zealand,

that was his new paradise.

Perhaps, also with you

because you were Jewish.

Somehow this being Jewish

is something very attractive for me.

And in the beginning

when I met Hundertwasser

his mother was afraid of me of course

because she knew who my father was.

And she was, uh,

with all her experiences in the war,

when she had to run around with

at the start of it.

The question of

the historical responsibility of m y father

is a very complex one

but the racial theory of

Germans being superman

and the others being

one dimension

my father was against this

right from the beginning.

He was absolutely somebody

who wanted to do something good,

and he wanted to get something moving

and find some solution

about all these problems.

Who arose after the first war and tried...

He was a complete optimist.

My father really

had deserved to die at the gallows

for what he has done, he deserved it.

Besides photos of my beloved family,

I always wear with me

the last picture of my father when he was...

After he was hanged.

He has a swollen eye so maybe

he crashed against the trap door.

On the one hand,

yeah, to be sure that he's really dead

but on the other hand,

and this is what haunts me all my life,

the Germans know exactly what can happen

if you are losing civil courage,

if you are losing democracy,

it leads to...

Can lead to extermination camps.

So we know this by heart because

we have done it, the Germans,

and people of his merciless

kind of living and killing

are still alive in Germany.

The article I had written to the

Financial Times attracted a tot of interest,

the newspaper offered to stage a public event

at which Horst and Niklas could

present their views side by side

and I was surprised when they both agreed.

(SPEAKING GERMAN)

The two men had much in common

with similar backgrounds

yet, seeing each on his own

I had become acutely aware

that they had very different attitudes

to their fathers.

Niklas is a more polished

and prepared individual,

Horst has just opened himself up,

he's never been through anything like this,

he's never had this kind of scrutiny.

Horst, let's... Let's turn to you.

May I first introduce, hmm, have some words?

Absolutely. Please do.

Yes, I am very grateful that I can be here.

That kind of listening and hearing

would be impossible in Austria,

there would be...

Well we don't know anything about Nazis

and we don't want to know anything and so...

I'd come to learn that Niklas

didn't like to miss any opportunity

to attack his father and to do so publicly.

But Horst on the other hand

it was less clear to me

why he would want to

expose himself publicly.

Both of our fathers were

heavily involved, heavily.

You told me once

I should make peace with my father,

I have peace with my father

because I acknowledged his crimes

and so I could lead a really good life.

And you, you're struggling for what?

To fight also against your father,

sorry, dear friend.

Well, I think I see it different.

I see the structure of the whole

annihilation of Jews

and what happens they are quite different.

And I didn't look for peace

it's just I felt it's my duty as a son

to put things straight with my father

and I see who was really responsible.

But it doesn't make your father innocent

if he's not quite responsible.

They worked together,

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