Elisabeth Bolster was born in the Bavarian region in Germany. Upon arriving in the United States, she discovered that people in America sometimes do not like people from other regions of the country. For example, inhabitants of the North and the South do not always mesh well together. When Bolster had first come to the United States, she was surprised by the linguistic differences between regions of the country. She could not understand what some individuals were telling her. Her husband had to translate for her [Annotator's Note: Bolster was a war bride and had married an American officer who brought her to the United States]. She was born in March 1928 in a small village outside Munich. Her mother used a midwife in order to have her daughter at home. Her mother was a state approved public accountant who could do taxes for anyone. Her father refused to join the Nazi party and, therefore, would not be hired for any job. He even refused to have any further children because he anticipated that any males would be cannon fodder for "that imbecile" [Annotator's Note: a reference to German dictator Adolf Hitler who Bolster's father vehemently hated]. Her father had been in the First World War as a Marine in the Germany Navy. Bolster adored her father. He would always protect her from her mother's occasional wrath. He would take her for ice cream in order for her mother to cool down. The strategy worked. Given her admiration for her father, Bolster cannot believe any father would molest his young daughter. The family was not rich. She enjoyed being with her father. The family would bicycle together in the country until the war came. With war came the bombings. Bolster came to the United States in 1945 after the war ended. She was a German bride of an American soldier and the law stated that she would have to be brought to the United States within eight weeks of the ceremony. The quick transit was due to the country's concern that soldiers would abandon their new brides when they were transferred home. Such situations could cause legal ramifications that the United States did not want to face. Bolster and her family lived in an apartment house in Munich. There were three bedrooms and a kitchen. She had playmates who lived in the same building. They would play at the ground level, below Bolster's third floor apartment. Bombings were frequent. Once, her mother gave her friend and Bolster each a bowl of cherries. They hung their legs over the window sill and spit the cherry pits on the huge Mercedes below them. It looked like a car Hitler would have. Her father was exasperated at the girls. The car could have belonged to high ranking Nazis who would think nothing of executing the culprits after the pits hit the automobile. Bolster and her friend hid under her bed but nothing further happened due to the incident. Her father said that if they had been discovered, the Nazis would have shot all of them [Annotator's Note: Bolster simulates the sound of a machine gun in describing the potential execution]. That frightened her. She still does not want anyone to know about the incident because there remain pro-Hitler sympathizers in Munich. Her father never wanted to talk to her about the rise of the Nazis in Germany. He thought she was too young to understand what was happening, but he wanted her to leave Germany after she grew up. When she dated the nice young man [Annotator's Note: the American officer], her father told her that it was acceptable with him. He wanted her out of Germany. She did not question his motives because she understood her parents and their absolute love for her. They reassured her that if she did not like America, they would send her money for a return trip to Germany. She never had to return to her homeland because she had a nice husband. She eventually divorced her first husband after 30 years of marriage because of his hot, German temper. He never was physically abusive to her during their marriage.

As a child, Elisabeth Bolster sat on her father's lap while Munich was being bombed by the Allies. She was comforted by her father. She asked him to make them stop the bombings. The bombs would whistle when they fell. Her apartment was hit and ruined by incendiary bombs. Their home burned to the ground. Most of the apartment dwellers went to the basement in hopes of surviving the inferno above. Some survived and some did not. There were more difficulties for families with many children. It was harder to round them up in order to reach safety. It was Hell on Earth. An atomic war would be much worse. Bolster fears conflict with Iran but does not know who she would prefer for president to avoid war. Prior to going to the basement, the family had each packed a small bag. Bolster's mother helped her pack a nighty, a book, a pair of shoes, a pencil, and paper. Bolster's father insisted that all the inhabitants of the basement exit because the fire above them was working its way down to their level. He broke a window in the basement and helped out not only his family but other men, women and children taking shelter there. The refugees found benches to sit on at a nearby park. Her father had never been hired for a job because he refused to join the Nazi party. He was so angered; he opted to join the Communist party. He did not support all those philosophies, but he considered it better than the Nazi party. An SS man questioned why the family did not fly a Nazi flag from their apartment window like the other inhabitants of the building. Bolster's father replied that he had no job so he could not purchase a flag. Following the bombing, Bolster's father admonished his wife and daughter to leave Munich and seek work on a farm in the countryside. He kissed them goodbye and told them not to return to the city because it was going to be leveled. The two females took their bicycles and used the autobahn to travel toward Augsburg. Few cars were on the road at the time. They pedaled toward Augsburg which was about 30 miles from Munich. By afternoon, Bolster was very fatigued. There were no stores or money to purchase anything. There were only rationing cards to get a piece of bread. Bolster spotted an attractive farm on the top of a hill. Her mother agreed that her young daughter could approach the farm and request a place to sleep for the night. A nice old lady answered the door. She looked Amish but there were no Amish in Germany. Bolster told the woman that she and her mother had been bombed out in Munich. She requested that the lady allow them to sleep in the barn overnight. They ended up staying with the woman for six years. The lady fed them and took care of them. Bolster felt she was a lucky girl. The woman had a good heart. She took in only Bolster and her mother, likely because no one else requested shelter. The lady liked Bolster so much, it made her mother jealous. Bolster knew the lady would never try to take her away from her mother. Her father never joined them full-time because men were kept in the city to help work through the debris from the bombings in order to find survivors or bodies of victims in the rubble. He was about 40 years old and would have been a prime candidate for that type work. He was never paid for his efforts.

Elisabeth Bolster was home during Kristallnacht [Annotator's Note: the "night of broken glass" when Nazis attacked Jewish shops, dwellings, synagogues and individuals on 9 and 10 November 1938]. There were so many Jewish shops near their home in Munich. Every shop window was broken. The idea was to put the Jews out of business. It was awful. She had friends who were Jews. Her father had advised his Jewish friend to let his sons go to South America. That would be preferred to having them suffer through the Nazi persecution in Munich. The boys went to live with their uncle outside Germany. The young men would eventually have successful careers in South America. They had good lives. Bolster had a unexpected reunion with them after the war. The boys' parents were shipped to a Nazi concentration camp and killed. Bolster suggested to her father that the war could all be settled if the men in control, like Churchill [Annotator's Note: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill] and Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: Supreme Allied Commander, US Army General, later President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower], would get into a boxing ring and fight it out. Her father told her that solution would probably never be allowed. Her father stayed in a shelter in Munich after their apartment was burned down by the Allied bombing.

Elisabeth Bolster would visit with her father every weekend [Annotator's Note: her father was forced to remain in Munich after the Allied bombings started while his wife and daughter found refuge on a farm between Munich and Augsburg]. He would travel the 20 to 30 miles by bicycle to visit with his wife and daughter. He arrived on Saturdays and departed on Sundays. He would be sent home with extra food so he would not starve during the week. Bolster and her mother stayed in a beautiful room in the house of a nice lady who owned a farm. The lady was a widow, but she had two sons serving as pilots in the German air force. The lady allowed her guests full use of her home and even taught Bolster to bake and make delicious foods in the kitchen. Bolster learned how to cook during the war. She and her mother were very lucky. The government was very restrictive on farmers slaughtering their own livestock. Meat had to be contributed to the soldiers and the war effort. A civilian could be executed for not conforming to the restrictions imposed on them related to the use of their farm animals for food. Neighbors were not above informing on each other. When a local farmer told Bolster that she should go to bed, she asked her mother if she had to do so. After her mother agreed that she should, there was the sound of squealing. A pig had been killed and Bolster knew it. Her mother admonished her not to say a word about it. A person could be killed as a result. Stores never had any produce for six years even if a person had funds to buy them. The farm had fruit trees and hens so there was some produce and eggs. Bolster helped around the farm with chores. The lady had sons in the military but did not approve of their service. Most of the Germans known by Bolster did not like Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and thought he was crazy. The farm lady would kill a chicken and prepare a delicious roasted chicken. All the while, citizens in Munich were going hungry. Farmers were not allowed to kill their own livestock to eat or drink the milk from their cows. They had to sneak around to do so. They had to cheat on everything in order to survive. It was very difficult. Many people loved Hitler but many hated him. Bolster's father read Mein Kampf but told his daughter to save the book [Annotator's Note: Hitler's Mein Kampf manifesto was mandatory reading in Germany after he ascended to power]. Her father could not explain the book to her at the time, but Hitler explained in the book what he intended to do. Bolster's father forecasted that Hitler would ruin the whole world and he did. Bolster had no extended family at the time other than her paternal grandmother. She could not understand her granddaughter wanting to go to America. Bolster was lucky that she did. Bolster's mother traveled to visit her daughter in America every year. She complained about the expenses to get to America and the bread made in the country. Bolster had to be a member of the Hitler Youth while in school. Her father objected to her wearing the uniform at home. She participated in marches but never anything violent, except once. She was walking home with her backpack when a group in brown shirts [Annotator's Note: a Nazi uniform] went to a door and pulled out a man and physically beat him. Her father said that the man likely did not give the raised arm salute [Annotator's Note: Bolster raises her arm in the fashion of a Nazi salute]. The German schoolchildren were taught to think of Hitler as a god. Religious pictures of Jesus and Mary and symbols such as the cross were removed from the classes. Only pictures of politicians were allowed. Bolster had suggested to her father that the politicians should all go into a boxing ring and fight it out. Her father told his 11 year old daughter that she had a grand idea. Bolster's father could not work because he refused to join the Nazi party. He joined the Communist party instead. That worried his wife because of the potential for them to be persecuted as a result. Bolster's father was ready to kill anybody at the time. The restrictions were not the same for women so Bolster's mother found work in her profession [Annotator's Note: she was a public accountant]. German policy was to support young girls procreating with young SS soldiers so as to have many babies. Bolster never had to do so. Bolster was in bed when the smashing of windows occurred during some night in October [Annotator's Note: Kristallnacht, or the "night of broken glass", occurred when Nazis attacked Jewish shops, dwellings, synagogues and individuals on 9 and 10 November 1938]. She heard bangs and crashes along with the sound of breaking glass. Her father came into her bedroom and told her not to get out of bed. He told her that the activities outside did not affect her. The various Jewish businesses had their windows broken. Her family lived in the city and could hear what was happening. She lived on Gärtnerplatz. [Annotator's Note: Bolster proceeds to describe various pictures and works of art on her walls.] Her father did not allow his daughter to see the damage the next day. She was frightened by the noises and likely did not want to go there anyway. The perpetrators were never punished. Some are still free. Her father explained that Hitler running the country was crazy. Her father was lucky not to be punished for the position he assumed. When the war started, her father received a telegram from the government to report for duty in the German Marine in Bremerhaven. He had served in the First World War but told his worried wife that he would be back in two days. During his wait for induction, he pretended to have asthma [Annotator's Note: Bolster simulates his heavy coughing]. He was excused from service by a medical soldier. Bolster's father did not want to go to war for Hitler. He made it home in two days after all. He did not fight in World War 2. Bolster only learned later in life why Hitler hated the Jews. She read a book that revealed that Hitler's mother was a housemaid in Austria and had an affair with a doctor. Hitler found out he had a Jewish father and decided that he would not leave a Jew alive by the time he died. He was so hurt because his father took no interest in him at all. His mother did not care much for him either because he was such a troublemaker. That was Bolster's uneducated opinion.

Elisabeth Bolster was on the farm for six years [Annotator's Note: Bolster and her mother found refuge on a farm 20 or 30 miles between Munich and Augsburg after the Allied bombings of Munich started in 1942 while her father was forced to remain in Munich and work salvage work resulting from the bombings]. There was a man named Goebbels [Annotator's Note: Joseph Goebbels was Nazi Minister of Propaganda] who came on the radio. He would announce German progress during the war. He broadcasted his positive messages about the success of the German advances at dinner time every night. Bolster felt Goebbels was a stupid man. If their radio had been tuned into London broadcasts, the listeners would have been subject to execution but they listened to the London radio news anyway. Goebbels made the false assertion that a chicken was on every German table for Sunday dinner. Bolster did not see a chicken on her table but was assured that she would get one that night [Annotator's Note: farmers were highly restricted in killing their livestock for personal meals since the food was prioritized for consumption by the German military]. The farm lady tried to feed Bolster the best she could. In turn, Bolster wanted to learn to milk the cow. She went early in the morning with the maid to milk the cow. The woman explained to Bolster how to do the chore. Instead, the cow swung her tail and knocked Bolster off the stool. Bolster did collect eggs from the barn. One day after collecting one particularly large egg, the young girl exclaimed that the rooster had laid the large egg. Those who overheard her had a big laugh over her proclamation. Working the farm was new, fun and an education for Bolster. She had a good friend who remained in Munich. They stayed friends throughout their lives until the lady died over ten years prior to the interview. Bolster's friend never had the desire or courage to move to the United States despite Bolster's admonitions that she should. The friend was involved in an automobile accident that required surgery. A year later, she had a stroke and died. Bolster's friend would visit the farm during summer vacation. She was particularly talented in sewing and knitting. Bolster was not patient enough to sew. Bolster would occasionally visit her father in Munich. He would take her for ice cream. Munich was highly destroyed but Dresden was even worse. Even through the destruction, the Italians managed to keep their ice cream shop open. Bolster's father lived in a shelter during that time. The mobile shelters were set up in parks. It was very poor and pathetic. The young men and women had separate facilities. The other occupants were always jealous of the extra food Bolster's father had [Annotator's Note: he would be provided with extra food from the farm each weekend when he visited his wife and daughter]. He deceptively told the others that he stole the food from a barn. Bolster attended a one room school taught by nuns. The students ranged from first to eighth grade. Everyone in the country was Catholic but Bolster was not. The class had 35 students and two nuns. It was held in a tower in the middle of the walled village. She stayed there until she graduated. She had more fun playing than studying. No discussion of the events of the war occurred in the school. Her father did not like her reading the assignments, but Bolster would have been punished if she did not learn the information so her father acquiesced. One day, a nearby farmer asked Bolster if she wanted a goose. That thrilled her so she went home and obtained a few Marks for the purchase. Bolster brought home the cleaned goose and her mother cooked it for dinner. They were anticipating a tasty meal when an air raid alert was given. They refused to have their meal disturbed so they strapped the prepared goose to the bicycle and went into the forest to enjoy the roasted bird. They told the others around them that they were determined to eat their special meal. Bolster was so used to hearing the bombers overhead that she could tell the American from the British bombers just by the engine sounds. Later in life, an old man came to Bolster to apologize for bombing Munich. She told him that it was not his fault. The Germans had actually started the aerial bombardments before the Allies. She met the man in a club that had old veterans. He wanted forgiveness and she gave it to him. Bolster had to collect the eggs in the morning on the farm and then had time to relax in the fields. She would have her meals at the same time with the crew working on the farm [Annotator's Note: French and Russian prisoners of war and multi-national impressed workers were subjugated to aid in the farm work]. Bolster was fortunate to have stopped at that particular farm [Annotator's Note: she and her mother sought one night's shelter with the kindly farm lady following their escape from Munich after the first bombing by Allied aircraft and ended up living a good life on the farm for six years during the war]. Air raid alerts were broadcast over the radio since there was no television at the time. The broadcasts told the public about the progress of the bombers across Europe and Germany. The radio stayed on constantly. Her father had a gadget to listen to London radio but that was considered treason. He asked his daughter to watch for vehicles manned by German authorities seeking out those listening surreptitiously to Allied radio news. [Annotator's Note: An interlude in the interview ensues when Bolster thinks she sees a spider nearby. There is none.] No officials ever came to the home to check on them, but it was dangerous to listen to anything other than German radio. German news continually portrayed their forces as winning the war. There were men helping on the farm with many of the difficult livestock and garden chores. It made Bolster feel that she was living on a rich farm. The crew was 70 percent German and 30 percent from Italy and France. French prisoners of war worked all over the place. They would barter with Bolster to exchange their chocolate for bread she could obtain. There was also a Russian prisoner who wanted all his teeth pulled. He anticipated that his teeth would be pulled in Russia. He thought the task would be done better in Germany. The dentist refused to pull the man's teeth because they were still in good shape. Bolster never feared having the prisoners around. They were polite and nice. The same people did not always work on the farm where Bolster lived. They worked around the village community on a rotation basis from farm to farm.

Elisabeth Bolster learned to speak English because her mother wanted her to leave the country [Annotator's Note: Bolster's family was not in favor of the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler and her parents wanted her to escape from the country as soon as she was of proper age]. Bolster's mother found a lady who had studied in England who agreed to teach Bolster the English language in return for some food items available from the farm. [Annotator's Note: Bolster and her mother found refuge with a kind lady who owned a farm between Munich and Augsburg when they fled Munich after the Allied bombings started in 1942. Her father was forced to remain in Munich and performed salvage work after the bombings.] Bolster was taught proper English pronunciations, but, near the end of the war, the lady refused to teach Bolster any longer. She discovered the young girl had spoken to Americans. Bolster's instructor turned out to be a strict Nazi. Bolster never had any further lessons. During the two years of work with the instructor, Bolster had learned enough English to work as a translator for the captain who occupied the village. He paid her in fruit rather than money based on her request. She had not seen an orange or banana in six years. In turn, Bolster gave him information where he could get fruit for his soldiers. The former instructor was vicious and shut the door on her student. The next group of Americans who came into the village asked for her help as a translator. That time, she wanted to be paid in chocolate rather than dollars. There was nothing to buy so money was not valuable. The troops had apples and oranges imported from the States. Bolster knew where all the prisoners lived in town. She worked as translator for a few weeks. They had the prisoners lined up. Her future husband [Annotator's Note: an American officer] hated all the Germans. Bolster is surprised he wanted to marry her. Her first job as translator involved helping the American occupiers learn where the burgermeister [Annotator's Note: similar to a town mayor] was located. This occurred after the war was over in Germany in 1945. The rebuilding in Munich had already started. The family got their apartment back after about a year. The farm lady visited them in Munich. Bolster was as fond of the kindly farm lady as she was her mother. Bolster first returned to Munich in 1963 after Kennedy was killed [Annotator's Note: President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963]. She was so upset about the good president being killed. Pöttmes was the little town where she lived during the war. She would visit Augsburg and take short-hand classes. She would get the defendant testimony on the machine so it could be recorded. Some of those defendants took a white pill and committed suicide. Hermann Göring [Annotator's Note: Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring was the supreme commander of the German Air Force and second in line of authority only to Hitler in the Nazi party] was one of them. Goebbels [Annotator's Note: German Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels], the newsman, was also one of them. He killed his wife and five children then himself. Bolster wanted to try to learn to be a stenographer. Most of the soldiers were 19 years old or so and she was 16 or 17. They made her do something that could have gotten her in trouble. The village had an extreme Nazi in charge before the end of the war. He was mean and miserable. The Military Summary Court wanted to apprehend all black marketers. Even Bolster participated but was never punished for it. She sold a highly polished boot she found, but no one arrested her for it. One of the men in her office asked her if she knew a hard-core Nazi who they could harass. They did not want to kill the individual. They just wanted to give him a hard time. She gave him the name of the man who never forgave them for not joining the Nazi party. He was mean. His name was Joseph Ziegler. The Americans forced Ziegler to study ten pages of Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] Mein Kampf and learn it by heart. After the Nazi managed to do so the next week, the Americans gave him his papers and let him go home. Bolster felt guilty. The man never learned who turned his name in to the Americans. During this time, Bolster was an office employee of the Americans. She was paid in apples, bananas and chocolate. Her parents liked the Americans and wanted her to marry one if she could. That was generous of them since they liked her. Her father got a job as an accountant during that time. Her mother was also employed [Annotator's Note: as a state approved tax professional]. Bolster had to attend all the black marketer trials. She was one also but never was caught. The trials were not cruel like the German trials had been. Bolster had to take down the trial testimony. She worked in Nuremburg. Control of the black market had to be enforced to prevent total mayhem. She sold her boot and that was all she cared about.

Elisabeth Bolster had no full knowledge of the implications of working at the Nuremburg Trials [Annotator's Note: the postwar trials of German war criminals in Nuremburg, Germany]. Her husband was an American officer and would take care of her if need be. America had set the rule that any soldier marrying a German bride had to return to the United States within two months. It worked that way for the couple. They set sail from a German port to America within two months after they were married. They traveled slowly on the open sea while they observed the Queen Mary sailing back and forth at a faster speed. Bolster met her future husband while she was temporarily employed at a fancy hotel [Annotator's Note: the name eludes her] in Munich. She was a telephone operator, and he attempted to get a connection to a location she could not reach. Having not been successful in his attempted communication, he asked her out to dinner. She refused because she was dating a military policeman who had a motorcycle. After several attempts, she agreed to go out with him. They were later married. At the Nuremburg Trials, she had to sit in the corner and capture what was being said by the judges and defendants. She heard the testimony of Luftwaffe head Göring [Annotator's Note: Hermann Göring was also second only to Adolf Hitler in command of the Nazi party]. Her husband spoke five languages so he went through Göring's papers. He found a document that ordered the execution of 320 named people. He showed the document to Bolster prior to the trial. When interrogated, Göring nonchalantly agreed that he may have seen the document. Her husband was very angry at Göring. The Nazi committed suicide. Bolster's husband was an interrogator. He fit the requirements for the Nuremburg Trial very well and was sent there. That was how the couple came in contact. They dated after the courtroom experience. Bolster worked with Göring's testimony over the course of just one day. Göring died that night. Bolster was frightened because she thought she would be killed also. Her future husband advised her not to take any pills. It would have been more satisfying to see Göring hung like Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] friend in Italy who wore a black uniform [Annotator's Note: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini]. The courtroom was very serious. It had Bolster in tears at times. She did not hear the Jewish testimony due to the couple having to go to America. It was right for them to testify. Bolster never saw any concentration camps until her husband took her. He was a Jew and wanted her to see where some of his relatives ended up. He took her to Dachau outside of Munich as well as one near Dresden. She also went to one in Poland. She learned how the gassing operations occurred. The people undressed and then were gassed. It was horrible to think about the selection process when people were picked to be killed like chickens. She saw the camps before they left for America. He wanted her to see the camps because some people deny their existence. [Annotator's Note: Bolster commences a discussion about a disagreeable neighbor. She requested that the hostess not invite that individual to their gatherings again. Next, she talks about boys in Germany who have their jeans hanging low enough to expose their underwear. A German commented that it would never have happened with Hitler in charge.] Bolster knew that people were beaten in concentration camps but she never knew there were murders and gassings there. It was unbelievable that those circumstances occurred. Some of the perpetrators collected the valuables of the victims for their own benefit. Lamps were made from victims' gold teeth. Bolster would never have one of them. Bolster worked for a few months at the Nuremburg Trials at the end of the war. She was well treated during the time. There were both men and women stenographers. There were not only Germans but other nationalities. She felt uncomfortable and did not want to be there. She lived in Munich and commuted to the Trials in her husband's fancy, chauffeured car. He was a captain and was assigned a nice car. He stayed in Nuremburg during that time.

Elisabeth Bolster and her husband left Bremerhaven for America. There were four tier bunk beds on the ship. There were babies onboard also. The war brides slept separate from the men on the voyage. They were allowed on the open decks. She was treated very nicely. Some of the women feared the men were being taken away from them. The ship was nice. It took two weeks to reach the United States. The same cruise ship from England kept passing them [Annotator's Note: previously, Bolster identified the ship as the Queen Mary]. Passengers on each ship would wave at each other as they passed. Bolster had packed a suitcase of clothes plus the accordion she used to play. She prayed that she was not making a mistake by making the trip. When she stepped off the gangway, a policeman asked her how she liked New York. She did not even have a chance to see the city before being asked. She went to get some nylons that had the seam in the back. She got two pairs. They lasted a long time. She and her husband took a taxi to his parents' apartment in New York. They briefly stayed with them. Her husband bought a fancy car to take a trip to find their own home outside of New York. The couple did not want to stay in the city. New York was too big and busy. They drove aimlessly out west until they reached Utah. They were about to run out of country and fall into the Pacific Ocean [Annotator's Note: Bolster laughs]. They stopped in Fillmore, Utah, about 100 miles from Salt Lake City. Bolster had sunburn from the convertible top being down. She wanted to apply cream to her face, but the shopkeeper said they had not had Ponds for quite awhile. They opened a five and ten cent store. They lived there for one year until the Korean War started. Her husband was called back to service. Bolster decided not to stay alone but to move in with his parents. She did not want to convert to being a Mormon. Her in-laws would be on her side. Her husband had no problem with that.

Elisabeth Bolster went to New York to be with her in-laws at Jackson Heights [Annotator's Note: she left Fillmore, Utah when her husband was called up for service in the Korean War]. All of them, including her husband, are gone. He died of pancreatic cancer, which was horrible. She misses him at voting time because he used to tell her who to vote for. She gets confused. There was no celebration for the end of the war [Annotator's Note: V-E Day was on 8 May 1945.]. The couple was married in the Munich courthouse. They were married in church after they came to the United States. Bolster prays for peace every night. The prayers have not helped as there is one war after another. Her minister tells her that there is nothing she can do about it. The Bible says there will always be one war after another. While she was working in Nuremburg, she was requested to name a staunch Nazi. She gave a name and the Americans gave the man ten pages to memorize from Hitler's [Annotator’s Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] Mein Kampf. The individual was told to memorize them or they would give him a hard time. The Nazi accomplished the requirement, but he was forced to eat the pages as a private punishment. Bolster did not want anything to do with it. The man was so mean that he had to be a Nazi. He marched around in a suit all the time. Bolster was a child at the time and the soldiers were barely still in their teens. The French were the nicest people she met during the war [Annotator's Note: French prisoners of war worked on the farm Bolster and her mother lived on during the war]. They would call her to the fence and ask for a loaf of bread. Her mother took care of her all this time. She was bossy, but protective, of her daughter. Her parents remained in Munich [Annotator's Note: when Bolster immigrated to the United States]. Her father died in the early 1950s. Her mother traveled to America to visit her daughter. She would joke about the expenses of the trips. Bolster's most fearful moment in World War 2 was when their home was burned [Annotator's Note: during the Allied bombing of Munich in 1942]. She sat on her father's lap as he comforted her. She was glad that she could help provide food for him while he had to stay in Munich after they took refuge in the farm outside the city. Bolster hates war. She was troubled by the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It killed many innocent people. She is anti-war. She would rather teach cooking. She never suffered from any post traumatic stress because her parents helped her through the period. Schools do not teach details about the war to the young people. It should be taught because we should never have war again. The guy from Russia [Annotator's Note: Russian President Vladimir Putin] looks very angry. The war resulted in Munich being rebuilt just as it was in prewar times. The war does not mean much to Americans. The people of Munich are happy beer drinkers. Anti-Semitism still exists in Munich. While she was there, she heard a comment from one of the residents that if Hitler was still in charge, young boys would not wear their jeans so low as to expose their underwear. The statement revealed to Bolster that Anti-Semitism still exists. The National WWII Museum is important. The World War II Memorial is on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Bolster would like to see it. Bolster is feeling the onset of dementia. It will progress until she dies. She eventually will not be able to recognize people previously familiar to her. She is grateful for the interview.