Paul: I was a youth growing up in Steiermark [Austria] and at first was envious of pilots who seemed to enjoy the freedom of being in the clouds; I knew that was my calling. Austria did not have the organized youth groups as the new Reich did, but there was enough support to get me training on gliders. In 1938 when we reunited with the Reich, my fortunes changed. I graduated and held a job as a clerk, but I was not fulfilled. When the reunion took place, I quickly left my job and applied to admission to the new Luftwaffe. I was accepted and placed in bomber training, flying a new type of plane -- a dive-bomber. Things moved quickly for me with training, and then commissioning as a pilot. Then war came unexpectedly, we believed the Führer would not allow the Reich to be pulled into any more wars, but circumstances spiralled out of his control. In August I had been assigned to KG51 [Kampfgeschwader 51 (Battle Wing 51) 'Edelweiss', was a Luftwaffe bomber wing during World War II which was heavily involved in the Battle of Britain]. We were moved close to the border and given daily updates on the situation with Poland. We did not have much time to train so there was a fear that we would have to fight with very little training or experience.

When war was announced it was very early in the morning, we were briefed and given targets consisting of hitting railyards and military installations. I remember being cautioned about ground targets, we were advised many refugees would be clogging the roads and that they might be mixed in with Polish military vehicles. I say this because the Allies accuse us of deliberately attacking civilians, but we went out of our way not to attack anything that could have civilians. An army unit logged a complaint against me because I did not attack a Polish armored column, who then went on to cause losses to a Panzer unit. It appeared there were civilian cars mixed in, so I avoided attacking. After Poland, I was given the chance to join a fighter wing, so I accepted and trained on the Me-109 [Messerschmitt Me 109, a fighter plane] just in time for the French campaign. This was a very hard-fought battle; we were outnumbered and faced an enemy who had months to prepare. One of the great myths of the war is that the Luftwaffe outmatched and outnumbered the Allies. It was the other way around. We suffered horrendous losses; it was only the skill and bravery of our pilots that won the day. I still feel the Spitfire and Hurricane were better planes than the early Me-109. Even [Adolf] Galland and [Werner] Mölders, whom I met, agreed. They both told me the only way to win was to be think about what the enemy could do, not what he might do. During the Battle of Britain I was shot down three times and my final time, after over 100 missions, I suffered a bad head wound that put an end to my flying days. After this I was assigned to fighter staff.

What attracted you to join the SS? What was your impression of Hitler since you were from Austria?

Paul: One thing that many Americans do not understand is that Germany and Austria are so closely related in language and culture that many consider us as one people. When you can go to either country and see the same architecture, eat the same foods, speak the same language, and practice the same customs, there is no real difference aside from small local customs. The Reich was very successful under Hitler, an Austrian, so we wanted to join this success as our nation was still dealing with the depression. He was looked upon as a very great leader who saved Germany from chaos and restored order. I would see photos of the black uniformed SS men at rallies and in trips to the Reich I would see them strolling with the prettiest girls. I always thought it would be good to join such an elite group of men, I never paid much attention to the racial ideals they believed in, but I did like that the SS was trying to preserve Germanic history, something that was being forgotten in the Weimar era. A comrade of mine had joined the Waffen-SS and really liked this branch, so in 1941 I asked for a transfer and a chance to serve in the SS. By this time, the Luftwaffe had more men than we needed, so this was easy to accomplish.

The training in the Waffen-SS was very tough, our bodies were made strong and our minds steeled for adverse situations. A strong bond with each other was created and a firm belief in our cause was nurtured. I selected anti-tank training as my next duty and was trained on the pitiful 37mm Pak gun, which by 1941 should have been withdrawn from service. Even the instructors told us it was useless, even in Poland. They taught how to use it to disable a Panzer by carefully placing shots on the tracks, or turret ring. I became very good at this, which was fortuitous for me later on.

What was the early war in Russia like for you?

Paul: When war with Russia broke out, I was transferred to a motorcycle reconnaissance unit with my anti-tank crew. We had great success against the Russians; the vast amount of prisoners we brought in was truly astounding. I believed victory would be swift. We were outnumbered but defeated every counter-attack they threw at us, with heavy losses. The coordination with the Luftwaffe worked like clockwork, whenever we encountered a Russian position the planes appeared overhead and did their work. I was assigned to the 'Reich' Division, as it accepted men from all over the Reich, and there were many from Austria in this division. One instance I clearly remember was outside Yelnya [Russia], we were moving forward when suddenly the Russians hit us with a large tank attack. I was able to use my 37mm Pak gun, hitting and destroying five tanks; our barrel was red hot. We broke this attack, which caught us by surprise and outnumbered our thin line by a large margin. I thought to myself how the Russian tank crews seemed to lack the skills to avoid our fire; this made me think about joining our Panzer arm.

I still remember how vast Russia seemed, endless roads and landscape and many people. Every town and village we captured still had civilians residing. They were very kind to us, as the communist-minded retreated with the army. I remember being welcomed as liberators and we were always given food and water. The people had nothing to fear from us and we had nothing to fear from them. I was happy whenever we came to a village with young women my age, especially when the weather was bad because we were usually invited to stay in the small home with them. Today it is said that the German Wehrmacht, and especially the SS, raped Russian women. I can attest that that is not true in the least. I remember making a comment aloud once in which I said some Russian women would be nice to lay in bed with on a cold morning, and the next day I was called to my commander's tent. He advised me that while he knew my talk was young, innocent banter, we must always remember the Russian woman is a European as much as a German woman and we must never disparage their reputation by insinuating that they are easy or a trophy; he did not want it to look like we craved Russian women as war trophies.

If a German soldier forced himself on a woman, he would be shot, that was made very clear to us all, and I heard of a few men who were accused of this and indeed paid with their lives. Russian civilians helped us more than once, especially during the terrible cold during the winter of 1941-1942. It was at this time I started spending time around our Panzer regiment and got to know many comrades. I was getting the itch to join a new career field, one in which there was no hauling a gun. By late 1941 we were on the outskirts of Moscow and I personally could see the minarets with a scissor periscope ['V' shaped binoculars used mainly by Panzer commanders]. We were that close to victory over Russia, because I believe if we could have struck the capital and disrupted the rail lines, it would have broken Stalin. The Japanese turned their backs on us after we signed a pact with them; I understand they were still upset we supplied China early on. If they had struck from Mongolia with massed armies, it would have prevented the reinforcements that hit us at the most inopportune time. 'Reich' was mostly wiped out during the winter counter-offensive; it came as a big surprise as we believed Russia was finished.

I was lucky to be alive, we were over-run and the fresh eastern Soviets were butchers, I witnessed them kill soldiers who had surrendered and they seemed to go out of their way to be cruel. During a local counter-attack, we recovered a village we had lost. There were around 40 civilians, when we retook it, that had been killed. They had been labeled as traitors and the pretty daughter of the family I stayed with had been raped and shot in the head. This was hard to see and left a lasting impression on me regarding the Soviets. We quickly lost the village again so we could not bury them, and I am sure the Soviets then blamed 'Reich' for the killings.