Elfriede Clausen was born in July 1939, in Lindenau [Annotator's Note: Lindenau, Germany], about 20 miles from Dresden [Annotator's Note: Dresden, Germany]. She has one older brother and one older sister. Her family worked and lived on a farm with cows. Clausen's father was conscripted into the German Army three weeks after she was born. She met her father for the first time when she was four years old. He returned to the family when she was six years old after the conclusion of the war in Europe. Clausen's mother was a faithful woman who prayed for her father to return home. Clausen's hometown was small, and the neighbors were close enough that they would support each other. Clausen began school at a young age because her mother had to manage the farm. She walked to the school by herself at around three years old. Her mother told her if she saw war planes to get into a ditch to hide. Growing up, Clausen did not have many toys. She had a couple of dolls and played with the village baker's boys. The German people had great trust in Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and thought he would bring prosperity to their country. By the time Clausen came along, the feelings of the German people changed about him. Clausen's family was given a Polish POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] to help with farm work. He had a friendly demeanor. When the Russians occupied the town at the end of the World War 2, that man saved her family's life. The Russians were shooting Germans who did not treat their POWs properly, but the Polish prisoner gave her mother a good reference to the Russians. Near the end of the war, German men would come into the town and search for young boys to join the army. Some were pulled from their mother's arms and forced to go with them to fight in battle. In April 1945, there was a battle in the region of Clausen's town that resulted in mass casualties. The villagers had to come out and bury the dead in mass graves. In May 1945, the Russian Army and American Army met at the Elbe River [Annotator's Note: near Torgau, Germany] not too far from her town.

Elfriede Clausen grew up in a German village [Annotator's Note: Lindenau, Germany] during World War 2. The Baron of the town lived in a castle at the end of the village. When the Russians took over her town, the Baron [Annotator's Note: an aristocrat similar to a Mayor] and his family were chased out. The Russians occupied the castle. In May 1945, the Russians first came to the village. The civilians hid in barns in nearby villages. They feared the Russians because they were known to rape the village women. The children were told to scream as loud as they could when the Russians came around to deter them from taking advantage of the women. Young girls from about 12 years old and older would hide all day so the Russians would not find them and rape them. Clausen said that her mother was never raped. She always found a way to keep the Russians at bay. The Russians also looted all the homes and business. Many of the German women hid their expensive china underground so the Russians would not find them. They occupied every home including her house. Her family and other families shared her parents' bedroom. Clausen stood in the doorway of her kitchen and begged for food from a Russian woman who cooked for the officers. This woman and her mother got along well. The Russians that lived in her house were overall nice to her and her family. The Russians stayed in her village until June 1945. Soon after they left, a large influx of Polish refugees came through the village. All the families of the village took the refugees into their homes. Clausen had a family of four refugees that lived at her house. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer pauses Clausen at 0:26:07.000.]

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer begins this clip by asking Elfriede Clausen about the bombing of Dresden, Germany.] The sky filled with red due to the firebombing on the nights of the Dresden bombing in February 1945 [Annotator's Note: British-American attack on Dresden, Germany, 13 to 15 February 1945]. All her neighbors were fearful about their fate. They listened to the radio and newspaper but due to German propaganda, they could not get the real state of the situation. Not too longer after the bombing, many of the survivors came to her village begging for food and help. Her mother found a way to give them some food even though they did not have much. Clausen's mother kept in touch with her father, who was in the German Army, by mail. Clausen's father was injured during a battle in France but survived. He returned home in 1946 by walking for weeks. Her father never truly healed after the war. He was very difficult to live with because his nerves were shot. After the war, Clausen had a family of four refugees that lived at her house. The parents were very distressed because they had left everything behind except the clothes on their backs. Later, after that family moved out, Clausen's family received another refugee couple that lived with them for several years. They helped Clausen's family on the farm. The refugee families became part of their family and she cared for them very much. Until 1989, the Russians would come in and take whatever they wanted from food to equipment. Her family also had to provide a certain amount of produce and dairy to the state government. Children in her village had to work on farms to make sure they had enough to portion out to the state and enough to feed their families. [Annotator's Note: There is a long pause from 0:41:05.000 to 0:41:34.000.] The stores in the village were sparse and the ones that existed did not have much to sell. People sold their family heirlooms for bread and potatoes. Near the end of the war, German men would come into the town and search for young boys to join the army. Some were pulled from their mother's arms and forced to go with them to fight in battle. Every family she knows has awful memories of wartime. Her friends' fathers or brothers were killed in the war, their mothers were raped by the Russians, and they were starving for food.

Elfriede Clausen recalls waiting for the Americans to come to their village and free them from the Russians occupying their town. The Americans never came through, so she never experienced the wonderful freedom the Americans brought. As Clausen grew up in East Germany in the 1950s, she was selected to go to a trades school for a farmer's union for three years. She eventually asked the government officials to obtain a visa to West Germany to visit family. They granted her the visa when she was not yet 18 years old. It was a difficult decision for her to go to West Germany because she had to leave her family and would not be able to return and visit. Her father eventually found a way to allow her to visit home once while she was attending Red Cross nursing school in West Germany. Clausen felt alone for four years because she could not see her family or friends from home. She lived with three other girls in a dorm room during nursing school in Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany]. Clausen traveled by bicycle for a couple of days in West Germany to visit the old Baroness of her village [Annotator's Note: former leader of her village in Lindenau, Germany]. The Baroness was delighted to see her and invited her in for tea. While she lived in West Germany, Clausen worked at a children's orphanage and worked at restaurants in Switzerland. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer pauses the interview at 0:54:27.000.] While living in East Germany, they were all isolated. They did not hear any news pertaining to West Germany, especially about the Berlin Airlift [Annotator's Note: Western Allies' operation to supply the blockaded city of West Berlin, 26 June 1948 to 30 September 1949]. They were required to listen to certain radio programs that showcased Russian propaganda. Clausen remarks on the differences of East Germany from West Germany. Everything from equipment to clothing was outdated in East Germany compared to West Germany. Buildings were still dilapidated and abandoned. East Germans were depressed and felt they were trapped.

Living in West Germany was very different for Elfriede Clausen [Annotator's Note: from living in East Germany under the Soviets]. She could buy anything she wanted and go wherever she wanted to go. She often hitchhiked to the Swiss Alps or to Austria. She befriended a girl who escaped East Germany as well. Clausen worked for the Red Cross after she went through their nursing school. The Red Cross stationed her in a small lake town in Switzerland. She worked every day for eight weeks without a day off. Some of the nurses, including Clausen, decided to resign because they did not like how they were being treated. [Annotator's Note: A person off camera interrupts at 1:03:38.000.] The Red Cross reassigned her to a private clinic. In 1965, she decided to go to America on a one-year visa because she wanted to make more money as a midwife. Once she arrived in America, she never left. [Annotator's Note: There is background noise at 1:04:39.000.] To get to America, she was sponsored by a former neighbor from her hometown who had already immigrated to America. When Claussen arrived in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York], she did not speak much English and had very little money. She found a job in New Jersey with the help of her sponsor.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Elfriede Clausen what she thought about the Berlin Wall, a concrete barrier that divided the city of Berlin, Germany from 1961 to 1989, coming down on 9 November 1989.] The event was the greatest excitement of her life because her friends and family visited her after. Her parents did not live to see the Berlin Fall [Annotator's Note: nickname for the wall being torn down]. They remained in East Germany their entire lives, never being able to get out. Clausen visits her hometown village [Annotator's Note: Lindenau, Germany] yearly. Clausen made a career out of nursing and eventually specialized in hospice. Clausen believes her war experience made her modest. She values personal relationships in her life more than traveling around the world or having material things. She does not suffer from post traumatic stress disorder [Annotator's Note: generally referred to as PTSD] from the war but from some of her nursing experiences. Her most memorable experience of World War 2 was when the Russian soldiers were living in her home. A Russian commander took her sister's accordion. She also remembered how it was an awful time for young women in the village because they feared the Russian soldiers would take advantage of them. The war changed her life because her education was influenced by it. She was behind after the war and had to catch up. She believes World War 2 is the biggest lesson the Germans have learned. She sees that the German people are very anti-war because of the results of World War 2. Many Germans believe that the Americans only profited from the war. Clausen believes that America helped end the war. She believes that it is important to have institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] because it teaches a good lesson to future generations. Still today, it hurts Clausen to think that the Germans put people in concentration camps.