Lutz Windisch was born in 1925 in Königssee in Bavaria [Annotator's Note: Königssee, Bavaria, Germany], where he also grew up. His father was a forest ranger there, but later became a police officer and moved to Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany]. Windisch became an avid skier as a youth, and played other sports in the summertime, all of which was fitting with the ideals of the Nazi party. Everything was run like the Hitler Youth [Annotator's Note: a youth organization of the Nazi Party for young men], and he followed all the orders he was given. In 1941, Windisch was drafted into the arbeitsdienst [Annotator's Note: the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD), or Reich Labour Service, a state-run work program imbued with Nazi doctrine]. He spent a year in Rouen, France becoming an officer for flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] artillery. They shot down quite a few targets, but were also heavily bombarded by the British and Americans. When the Americans approached France and eventually occupied it, Windisch was still in Rouen, which was an important harbor. His unit retreated towards Germany. Having previously been assigned to 88mm [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] guns, he was transferred to the tank corps on the Eastern Front in the area of Leipzig, Germany. He was a gunner in a tank smaller than the Tiger [Annotator's Note: German Mark VI main battle tank, known as the Tiger], like the Panther [Annotator's Note: German Mark V main battle tank; known as the Panther]. They were fighting heavily against the Russians, but were also being attacked by infantry. They mounted a 20mm gun on the turret to fire against infantry. One of his crew mates was wounded on the outside of the tank, and when Windisch went to help him, they both got knocked off the tank without the driver noticing. Five minutes later, they were captured by Russians and taken prisoner of war for three months until he and a friend escaped. They ended up in Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] where he was captured by the American Army and transferred to Remagen [Annotator's Note: Remagen, Germany] on the Rhine River. He was in captivity for six months, and tried to escape four or five times but was recaptured every time. He was there until September 1945 when he was released. They had no money, so they caught rides. He was happy to find his family was still alive in Munich, and his house still standing, although damaged from all the bombing. Windisch began looking for work, and became a technician with Siemens electrical company in Munich. He volunteered to go to New York when they opened an office there, selling x-ray equipment. He was then transferred to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. He got married, had two children, and still lives there.

Lutz Windisch was born in 1925 in Königssee in Berchtesgaden [Annotator's Note: Königssee, Berchtesgaden, Germany], where Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] tea house was. When he was in the Hitlerjugend [Annotator's Note: also known as the Hitler Youth, a youth organization of the Nazi Party for young men], Windisch was invited to visit the tea house. It was to be part of a movie showing that the youth supported Hitler. They were served tea and coffee, and shook Hitler's hand. He did not make eye contact with Windisch which hurt his feelings. Windisch was 17 years old at the time. Growing up in Nazi Germany, they had to be involved in sports. Windisch and his friends were avid skiers, having grown up in Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany], so his Hitler Youth group was considered a mountain group whose sport was skiing. They did not care about the politics behind it. As young children, Germans were involved in the Jungvolk [Annotator's Note: Deutsches Jungvolk in der Hitlerjugend, for boys aged ten to 13] before moving into the Hitlerjugend. They did military training, and knew how to shoot guns. Everyone was introduced to military life by the age of 14, and it was made so that they would enjoy it. They would go to movies together on Wednesdays. SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization; abbreviated SS] officers trained them. They were young and easily influenced, and they thought it was fun at the time. They spent four weeks in Obersalzberg [Annotator's Note: in Berchtesgaden] training to become real soldiers. It was tough. He found it amazing how their minds were changed not against, but for the politics behind it. They had become a part of something. Everything was given to them for free and they were given support.

Before World War 2 began, Lutz Windisch did not necessarily think that Germany was headed for war, but he grew up in the Jungvolk [Annotator's Note: Deutsches Jungvolk in der Hitlerjugend, for boys aged ten to 13] and Hitlerjugend [Annotator's Note: also known as the Hitler Youth, a youth organization of the Nazi Party for young men]. He spent most days with other boys, rather than his family. His Hitler Youth group was attached to the SS Division Vestland [Annotator's Note: SS Regiment Westland, 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking"] in Munich [Annotator’s Note: Munich, Germany], which was training young people to become SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization; abbreviated SS] officers. They were given so much that it was easy to become part of the system rather than against it. The training made them feel important and patriotic. Windisch also joined the RAD [Annotator's Note: the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD), or Reich Labour Service, a state-run work program imbued with Nazi doctrine], which was required of all Germans. When he finished with the RAD, Windisch enlisted in the tank corps. The tank corps headquarters were in Obersalzberg [Annotator's Note: in Berchtesgaden, Germany] where Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] had a tea house. The SS knew how to treat the young people to make them want to be a part of the system. The training was outstanding. Windisch had been drafted into the RAD in Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau, Germany], where there was a labor camp. He had heard about it but never knew anything about the concentration camp [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany] there. This was around 1939 or 1940. They met and talked to some of the prisoners there, and even showered with them sometimes. No one knew at the time that people would be gassed and killed, as this began later. Once he finished with the RAD, he reenlisted in the tank corps and was sent to Paris and then Rouen [Annotator's Note: Paris and Rouen, France]. He was stationed in Rouen, in Normandy, until the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He retreated from Rouen all the way back to Germany, where he was reassigned to the Eastern Front. That was a different story altogether.

During training in Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau, Germany], Lutz Windisch trained mostly on machine guns such as the MG-34 [Annotator's Note: German 7.92×57mm Mauser caliber Maschinengewehr 34, or "Machine Gun 34"], and on 20mm guns, but not on heavier weapons until he was trained on the 88mm [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] before being sent to the front. He was an officer in charge of the technical aspects of the gun, who would fix any problems with them. Initially, in Rouen [Annotator's Note: Rouen, France], the 88s were immovable in cement bases. Later on, they were mobile on wheels. They used radios and telephones to communicate. They had around 12 guns in the emplacement in Rouen, and an observer to direct the guns. When the Americans came and bombed the place, the cables would be hit and communication was cut. It was difficult to aim without communication with the observer, because they could not judge the distance. The Germans took a lot of bombardment from low-flying American planes. It was horrifying. They were in an open field and had no protection around their guns. Windisch was a technician and had a bunker for tools and parts. While 50 yards away, an American plane dropped a bomb next to the bunker and lifted it up off the ground. He spent around five months in Normandy altogether before he had to retreat to Germany. They fought all the way back. When they arrived in Germany, Krupp [Annotator's Note: Friedrich Krupp AG, an armament producer; today ThyssenKrupp AG after mergers] supplied them with new guns and they were sent right away to the Eastern Front in a group of six or seven tanks. He was a gunner on one of the tanks. In Normandy, they lacked a steady supply of ammunition for their antiaircraft guns. The Americans would bomb the ships transporting the ammunition before it reached them in Rouen.

When Lutz Windisch pulled out of Normandy [Annotator's Note: following D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] he was part of the group of Germans caught in the Falaise Gap [Annotator's Note: in the area of Falaise, France in August 1944]. He had been in Rouen [Annotator's Note: Rouen, France], which was important to both the Germans and the Americans because of its river access to ships. The American aircraft were overpowering, and the Germans lost the position and had to run back to Germany. They lost a lot of men in Normandy, not on the ground but from aerial bombardment. Windisch was reassigned to an Eastern Front unit [Annotator's Note: Panzergrenadier Division "Großdeutschland" or "Grossdeutschland"]. He had not seen or been in communication with his family for six months. He later learned the family house in Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany] had been bombed, but the family was unharmed. He tried to get in touch with them, but did not know they had moved. Windisch was assigned as a gunner in a tank division in the Rhineland and were transported by train to the Eastern Front. Everyone knew that fighting the Russians was different than fighting the Americans. They were told the Russians were strong fighters and ruthless. Windisch worked first on a tank IV [Annotator’s Note: Panzerkampfwagen IV, commonly known as the Panzer IV or Mark IV] armed with a 75mm gun, and later on a Tiger tank [Annotator's Note: German Mark VI main battle tank; known as the Tiger] armed with an 88mm as well as a 20mm gun. They did not have sufficient ammunition, so they coordinated every shot with other tanks to maximize use of the rare ammunition. The Mark IV tank was a fast tank, versus the very heavy Tiger which moved more slowly. Tank warfare was more frightening than his stint in antiaircraft artillery. Moving the tank was cumbersome, so it was difficult to deal with small arms. Windisch's tank was hit several times. They could fix the tanks if needed, but it was dangerous to be outside of them because they were exposed and there were explosions everywhere. He once saw a Russian tank coming, and they only barely managed to maneuver quickly enough to avoid it.

Lutz Windisch and his tank crew knocked out two or three Russian tanks. His tank was armed with an 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. The 88's explosive was incredible and had tremendous penetration power, unlike smaller guns. It was very effective against the Russian tanks. Windisch was mostly near Breslau, Germany [Annotator's Note: modern day Breslau, also known as Wroclaw, Poland]. He was wounded and captured there. A Russian tank hit their tank, knocking it out. The turret was hit and could not be moved. The Russians had so much infantry, that Windisch's crew attached a machine gun on the back of their tank. The gunner of that weapon looked to be hit, so Windisch got out of the tank to help him, but the tank ran over a boulder and both Windisch and the machine gunner fell off the bank of the tank. The machine gunner died in his arms, and Windisch had been shot just above the heart. He was taken prisoner and remained in captivity for three months until he escaped with a fellow prisoner. [Annotator's Note: There is a break in the interview to change tapes. Windisch repeats part of his story.] He had been shot near his heart by the time the Russians reached him. He and the other prisoners were not treated well initially because the Russians viewed them as the bad guys. They were given nothing to eat for three days, only water. They eventually ate grass, which was unbelievable, but he would do anything to survive.

Lutz Windisch and his fellow prisoners [Annotator's Note: he was taken prisoner by Russian forces near Breslau, Poland] got weaker by the day. He was with a group of around 150 men, and they were made to work. After about two months, while taking a break to urinate, he quickly hid behind a bush without being noticed by the guards. He stole eggs from a nearby farmhouse and only moved at night, eventually arriving in Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] where he was quickly apprehended by occupying American forces and put into a prisoner of war camp there. The Americans and Russians did not like each other, and the Americans were trying to move the prisoners away from the Russian side. Windisch was sent from Berlin to Kassel [Annotator's Note: Kassel, Germany]. The Americans treated them fairly well, giving them sufficient food and water. He was later moved to Remagen [Annotator's Note: Remagen, Germany] on the Rhine River and came up with an escape plan with a fellow prisoner. They tried to swim across the river, but were spotted and turned around. An officer asked Windisch why he tried to escape, and he said it was because he was hungry. The officer asked what he wanted, and he responded "marmalade". He was given marmalade and a spoon to eat it with. He was so hungry, but after five spoonfuls, he could not eat anymore because he had been so hungry. Windisch was held captive until around October [Annotator's Note: October 1945], because the Americans feared the freed prisoners would regroup and revolt, so they released small numbers of men at a time. Really, they were sick of fighting and just wanted to go home. When Windisch was released, he had to walk the 300 kilometers back to Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany]. He had no money, and found that people were helpful in getting him home. After the war, Windisch ran into one of his tank crew mates who gave him food, as food was still hard to come by at the time. Fifty years later, Windisch visited Germany again and went back to his hometown in Berchtesgaden [Annotator's Note: he was born in Königssee, Germany]. It looked the same as he remembered. He later worked for Siemens, and ended up moving to New York and getting married, and settling in San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California].