Elvira Maria Katarina Algermissen Leskovec was born in February 1928 in Hildesheim, Germany. She had one sister who was four years older, named Melitta. They were raised by their parents in Hildesheim for 11 years, until they moved to Schladen [Annotator's Note: Schladen, Germany] near the Harz Mountains. It was a small farming and factory town. Her father decided to move there because he felt that with the military buildup in Germany and the rising tensions around the world, war was inevitable. Leskovec applied and was accepted to a special program that combined high school with teachers college for four years until 1942. She later realized that Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] figured that if he occupied all of Russia, the Ukraine, Poland et cetera, that they would have needed teachers in those areas, and that is where she would have been sent. Hitler, Goebbels [Annotator's Note: Paul Joseph Goebbels, a German Nazi politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945] and Goering [Annotator's Note: German Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring, or Goering, commanded the German Air Force and was second only to Adolf Hitler in the Nazi chain of command] always thought they were going to win the war. Leskovec was 14 years old when she went to the school, and studied all subjects including physics and four languages.

Elvira Maria Katarina Algermissen Leskovec was so wrapped up in her schooling [Annotator's Note: in a combined high school and teachers college] and sports that she did not pay much attention to the politics of the time. Their life was studying, that was it. She is still close with her classmates and they recently had a reunion in Germany. Leskovec wanted to teach chemistry. They also studied psychology, philosophy and teaching techniques. After the war, she went to another school like that one. The Allies did not think her schooling was sufficient, so she had to redo much of the schooling. Leskovec's father had a good position working for the railroad, and her mother was a fashion designer who had her own business. They had to work a certain number of hours in order to get ration cards. At boarding school, Leskovec was always homesick. She called her father every morning just to hear his voice. All the girls at school shared food packages that they would receive. The school provided them with very little food, some jam and bread, but no butter. For dinner they had potatoes, hard as a rock, and vegetables, but no meat. The school was very strict, almost military. They had to wake up early and took ice cold showers because there was no hot water. They had to clean their rooms, including the floors, and make their beds. Everything had to be perfect, even in their cupboards. One girl who made a mistake was put on bathroom duty for a year, and would have to clean clogged toilets. The teachers also lived at the school, but were served meat and pastries which perturbed the students who were given less than 1,300 calories per day. Leskovec was a classroom monitor who was supposed to tell on the other students, but would not do it. The principal of the school was transferred to a different school because he was not in line with Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler]. The woman who replaced her wore swastikas on her lapels and would say "Heil Hitler" and salute when passing students in the hallway. The students all thought it was stupid, but were made to greet her that way.

In late summer 1944, a German military captain was housed in Elvira Maria Katarina Algermissen Leskovec's family home [Annotator's Note: in Schladen, Germany]. They had to give up most of the rooms in their house to the military and share the remaining rooms among the family. One of Leskovec's teachers called her father [Annotator's Note: who was a railroad executive] when she missed a train. The military officer talked the teacher into letting Leskovec, who was always homesick at boarding school, go home. Leskovec did not want to go home because she was not allowed by the school to do so. She was scared, but had to go home because the teacher told her to. Within two hours, the principal [Annotator's Note: a woman who supported German dictator Adolf Hitler] called and demanded that Leskovec return to the school immediately. Her father accompanied her, and told the principal that he was taking her out of school. Leskovec learned the lesson that even as a 16 year old, you cannot depend on adults. The Ministry of Education told them she had to finish the program and could not attend regular high school. She then went to a similar school in Braunschweig [Annotator's Note: Braunschweig, Germany], but never graduated. She got married instead and moved to the United States. She had to do quite a bit of studying to keep up with the other students in Braunschweig. There were a lot of air raids there, day and night. The American Army moved in on 10 April [Annotator's Note: 10 April 1945]. The Friday before that, the students were told not to return to school because the Americans were coming and advancing quickly. On her way to the grocery that day, Leskovec and her sister saw two German soldiers throwing their helmets and uniforms into the river. There were no German soldiers left for defense of the area. When the Americans moved in with their tanks, it was very casual, and the soldiers were very friendly. The Germans had been told that the Americans would rob and rape them, so everyone hid their belongings in their basements, but this turn out not to be true. The Allied soldiers even cooked for the locals, knowing that they had not eaten well for years. The German civilians ended up welcoming the G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier], who happily showed pictures of their wives and told them about where they were from. They were happy to talk and forget about the war for a while. They soon pulled out and headed for Magdeburg [Annotator's Note: Magedeburg, Germany] to cross the Elbe River. Leskovec's father was picked up by the soldiers because they assumed everyone in the town needed to be de-Nazified. He was held for almost a week, and had his mugshot taken. He had never been in favor of Hitler, but because he worked for the railroad, he was required to be a member of the Nazi Party. He was released because so many people in the town came to his defense.

Elvira Maria Katarina Algermissen Leskovec's sister wanted to study medicine, but it was not permitted at the time and she was drafted into the Air Force [Annotator's Note: the German Air Force, or Luftwaffe]. Their father did not want her to go into the Air Force, so he hired her to work for him at the railroad. Leskovec met her future husband through her sister, because they worked together. Leskovec worked as an interpreter for the mayor of the town, even though she was only 17 years old. The 2nd Armored Division was not taking prisoners. This was towards the end of the war. Leskovec would help provide travel documents for German soldiers to return home rather than them being held in POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camps. The black market was very strong, and you could buy anything in exchange for cigarettes. It was an awful time. The war years, with all the bombing and everything, people were there to help one another. After the war, people would tell on each other to save themselves. Leskovec's uncle worked for BP [Annotator's Note: a British multinational oil and gas company] in Hamburg, Germany. He made a comment about how Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] should have known better than to invade Russia, was picked up and died in a concentration camp. Leskovec's father listened to a radio station from Luxembourg, and one of his workers threatened to report him. They were all afraid of telling anyone anything. After air raids, they would go into people’s homes to see if they could find survivors. Leskovec would assist in any way she could, making food or rolling bandages.

After the American Army moved in [Annotator's Note: near Schladen, Germany in early April 1945] Elvira Maria Katarina Algermissen Leskovec marveled at all the equipment and supply lines. There were MPs [Annotator's Note: military police] everywhere directing traffic. There were around 13,000 displaced persons in the area and most of the food went to them because they had nothing. There were Russians working in the factory who really got nothing. Leskovec's father had a garden, and hired some of the Russian men to work the garden for him and would feed them three meals a day. The men he hired protected their family. There were a few days where people were looting, and the men stopped the Leskovec home from being ransacked. A curfew was put in place. They were not far from East Germany. The Russians could and sometimes would cut off electricity from their town, as the power plant was in their zone. All civilians had to turn in any weapons they might have, as well as cameras to be destroyed. The 2nd Armored Division occupied Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. Leskovec's husband [Annotator's Note: apparently serving with the 2nd Armored Division] went to Gelnhausen [Annotator's Note: Gelnhausen, Germany] and the troops left all their tanks and equipment there. He was discharged that year from Indiantown Gap [Annotator's Note: Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania] because he had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home], and began to study architecture using veterans benefits. Leskovec arrived in the United States on 17 April 1948 as a war bride. She had remained in Germany for the three years following the end of the war in Europe. [Annotator's Note: There is a break in the video.]

Elvira Maria Katarina Algermissen Leskovec, her sister, and a friend were walking along a river [Annotator's Note: in their hometown of Schladen, Germany], and heard Frenchmen in the distance. The girls were accused of fraternizing with the enemy simply for walking near the Frenchmen. Her friend was a member of the Hitler Youth [Annotator's Note: a youth organization of the Nazi Party for young men], and was harassed due to this accusation, and stripped of her rank and membership in the group. Leskovec saw British and American POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] being transported on trains and gave them all the apples she had. She thought that it could be her father or an uncle, and if she could give them just one little ray of sunshine she would. When Leskovec's sister worked for the railroad, a train arrived from Nordhausen [Annotator's Note: Nordhausen, Germany] in the southern part of the Harz Mountains. There was a concentration camp there. There was a red cross painted on top of the train [Annotator's Note: so that it would not be fired upon], which ended up containing parts for assembling bombs, but also concentration camp prisoners. The train was strafed, and the Germans pointed a gun at Leskovec's sister, telling her she had to save an officer who had been badly hit by the strafing fire. Leskovec saw his body, it was in shreds. Because her sister did not let the train in, all the prisoners were released, ran away, and hid. It is thanks to her sister that their lives were saved.

Elvira Maria Katarina Algermissen Leskovec notes that the rebuilding [Annotator's Note: of Germany] after the war was slow. The currency was changed. There was no industry. The locals got together and worked together to clear debris from air raids. Leskovec and her family often traveled, so she was quite familiar with most of Germany. The United States is now her home [Annotator's Note: having immigrated as a war bride in April 1948 to Girard, Pennsylvania] and she does not have any desire to move back to Germany. She was surprised by all the trees in America, and that there were not small villages every few kilometers like in Germany. The abundance of clothes in stores impressed her. She had not seen such things in years. All the people welcomed her. A friend of hers warned her that some people might blame Leskovec for all the lives lost during the war in Germany, even though she was not responsible for it, but she found that the American people are kind and compassionate. She attained American citizenship. During the process, she was asked about the Hitler Youth [Annotator's Note: a youth organization of the Nazi Party for young men and women]. She was a member of the group. They did not constantly talk about Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler], but camped, marched, and made toys for kids. It was similar to the Girl Scouts. They knew there were concentration camps, but not much about them. All she knew was about her uncle [Annotator's Note: who died in a concentration camp after saying something negative about Hitler]. Leskovec does not believe people who said they did not know there were concentration camps near them, because even in the tiny town of Shladen [Annotator's Note: her hometown, Schladen, Germany] where there were no nearby camps, they were aware.

Elvira Maria Katarina Algermissen Leskovec's most memorable experience was when the American Army moved in [Annotator's Note: into her hometown of Schladen, Germany in early April 1945], and she realized everything she had been told before was a lie. She had been told the Americans were rapists and looters, but they proved to be the kindest people. She also remembers coming to the United States and becoming a citizen. Her childhood in Germany gave her flexibility, and allowed her to come into a completely new environment. She got involved in her child's school and did substitute teaching [Annotator's Note: Leskovec had studied to be a teacher while living in Germany]. Leskovec thinks it is very important to teach about the war. When Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] came to power in 1933, she was five years old. The year after, he started burning books of authors who did not agree with his philosophy. She was required to join the Hitler Youth [Annotator's Note: a youth organization of the Nazi Party for young men, the girls' equivalent was the Bund Deutscher Mädel, or BDM] when she was ten years old. They did projects together and felt they were doing something productive. Leskovec did not feel all that affected by the war because she was young and kept busy in school. Her parents probably felt differently about it because after the First World War [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918], their money was not worth anything. That generation went through true hardships, having starved during two world wars. But the still saw to it that Leskovec and her sister was okay. They all took the air raids in stride.

Elvira Maria Katarina Algermissen Leskovec believes personal integrity or an inner strength that she was brought up with that got her through the war. She was raised to be a survivor. She was taught love and discipline on the same scale. Leskovec's father worked for the railroad. The family was Catholic, but Leskovec attended public school while her sister attended a Catholic school. The Mother Superior of the school threatened to fail out Leskovec's sister unless Leskovec was transferred to the Catholic school. Instead, the sister was taken out of the Catholic school and sent to public school because their father believed in God's laws above man's laws. When Hitler began expanding to the East, Leskovec realized that is where she and her classmates [Annotator's Note: at a teachers college boarding school] would have been sent. They were physically tested to see if they could withstand the cold.