Interview with Adelheid Braunstein, January 11, 2019

Interview Summary

Adelheid Braunstein talks about her myriad life experiences, including being ethnically German in Yugoslavia, being a woman married to a German soldier during World War II, and what it was like to immigrate to the United States. She was born in 1924 in Alibunar, in what was then Serbia, and describes her family history. Her family moved to what was then Yugoslavia and she talks about being a German living there before attending school in Germany. She returned home to Yugoslavia and married Andreas Braunstein, who was then conscripted against his will into the German army. Braunstein talks about living as a refugee until the end of World War II before fleeing to Czechoslovakia, where they were held in terrible conditions at a Czech/Soviet labor camp. As a warning to the listener, Braunstein describes hearing the rape of other women prisoners at the camp. At the camp, she gave birth to her oldest son Eddie, before escaping to West Germany in 1945. From there, she says they immigrated to the United States in 1952, and she describes their experience as immigrants in America, discussing cultural assimilation, segregation, and the bullying of her son during grade school. Braunstein and her husband moved to Scott County, Kentucky in 1990 to be closer to their daughters, who work there in the horse industry.

Interview Keyword

Mansfield, Ohio World War II German soldiers Yugoslavia Serbia Alibunar (Serbia) U.S. anti-German sentiment Schools Fleeing to Germany Emigrating to U.S. Germans Hapsburgs Romanians Hungarians Serbians Siebenbürgen (Romania) Turkey World War I Croatia Slovenia German schools Landfrauen schools Weidenthal (Germany) World War II Andreas Braunstein Eastern front German soldiers Ethnic cleansing Czechoslovakia Czech soldiers Russians Rape Field hospitals West Germany No-man's-land World War Two

Interview LC Subject

Serbia Minorities--Europe, Eastern. Danube Swabians Education--Europe, Eastern. Ethnic relations. National socialism and education. National socialism and women. National socialism--Germany. World War, 1939-1945 Marriage. Courtship. War crimes. Refugees--Europe. Berlin, Battle of, Berlin, Germany, 1945. Czechoslovakia. Soviet Union--Foreign relations--Czechoslovakia. Sudetenland (Czech Republic) Labor camps. Crimes against humanity. Forced labor. Women refugees. State farms--Soviet Union.

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.