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Fort Hunt Oral History Transcript Bill Hess

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Fort Hunt Oral History Transcript Bill Hess Fort Hunt Oral History P.O. Box 1142 Interview with Bill Hess by Brandon Bies Silver Spring, Maryland November 21, 2006; March 9, 2007 INTERVIEWER: This is an oral history interview on Fort Hunt with the National Park Service. We’re here with Bill Hess at his home in Leisure World in Silver Spring, Maryland. This is Brandon Bies with the National Park Service, as well as Matthew Virda [phonetic] and Samuel Swersky. And we’re going to talk a little bit about your experiences with Fort Hunt today. BILL HESS: Okay. INT: And so, if we could just get started a little bit about yourself, about where and when you were born and a little bit about your family’s background. BH: Okay. I was born in 1921 in Stuttgart [00:36], which is in Southern Germany. And I lived in the same house with my parents for almost 16 years, until I immigrated to the United States. My parents were what they call in Germany, “middle class.” My father had a [01:00] textile, wholesale business, a very small operation, only he and two employees. And my mother came from a rather prominent family in central Germany. Her maiden name was Simson [01:16] [phonetic]. Simson had established the -- before the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 [01:28], an arms factory in a town -- Suhl [01:33], which was sort of the center for the small arms industry. And he was a rather esteemed citizen of the -- of the city. And that was my mother’s family. I went to elementary public school, and to a secondary school for total of nine years. Well, when the Nazis [02:00] came to power, in the beginning it looked like just another unpleasant period that would go over fast. But, by the time the Nuremberg [02:12] laws were enacted in 1935, it became evident that young people had no future. And so, my father and my mother became very worried about me. She contacted an uncle she had in New York [02:28]. Bill Hess 2 November 21, 2006; March 9, 2007 And he said that when I’m 16 and old enough to work I could come to this country. And they had farmed me out to a friend of the uncle who lived in a small town in Illinois. INT: [affirmative] And were you an only child? BH: I was an only child, yes. Now, while I -- Stuttgart [02:54] was a -- was a relatively benign place [03:00] for Jews to live. In fact, many of the Jewish families in small towns and villages who felt the Nazis’ [03:09] discrimination and abuse much earlier moved into Stuttgart. And so, I never -- I never really ever suffered. I got along well with my fellow students. And I was allowed to stay in public school because my father -- FEMALE SPEAKER: That was -- excuse me. That was before Kristallnacht [03:32]. BH: Oh, yes. FS: That’s why you weren’t -- BH: That was in ’34, ’35. My father was a combat veteran of World War I. INT: [affirmative] BH: And Hindenburg [03:46], right at the beginning when he was still alive, made it clear that his soldiers were not to be abused in any way. INT: [affirmative] BH: Later on, of course, that all went down the drain. My parents, like many other people [04:00], thought since my father was a small business man -- he had no big stores or factories, that he could stay. And that almost turned out to be fatal because they were there doing the Kristallnacht [04:20]. And my father was arrested and sent to Dachau [04:22] for five weeks. My mother got her uncle to send counsel with more affidavits of responsibility -- sponsorship. And so, in 1939, with -- just the months before World War II broke out, my parents were able to come here. And so, we started with nothing. It was Bill Hess 3 November 21, 2006; March 9, 2007 very difficult for them. My father started a little business, and [05:00] it was very hard for him to get started. And, of course, I was the main support in the family. INT: So, but you -- so, you came here before your parents? BH: Oh, yeah. Two years. INT: Okay. BH: I missed it by a little over a year. If I hadn’t left I may not be alive today. INT: [affirmative] And so, you left in 1937? BH: In ’37. INT: And how, specifically, did you -- I know you said -- so, you turned 16. BH: Yeah. INT: And then were you sponsored by family or relatives, or -- BH: An uncle. INT: Okay. BH: My mother’s uncle was responsible for me. But, I felt I was responsible for myself. INT: [affirmative] BH: And, it was very hard. I was living with total strangers, who were very nice, treated me very well. I paid them room and board, of course. And my boss’s son thought I had to get rid of my heavy accent. And so, he provided a tutor, a very fine lady [06:00] -- teacher, who was -- had to leave her job because here, during the Depression [06:04], if a woman got married, she had to give up her teaching job for a man who needed to support his family. After I paid room and board, and paid for the -- for the English lessons, I had a disposable income of 7 cents. [laughter] Bill Hess 4 November 21, 2006; March 9, 2007 INT: Wow. And so, what city were you in when you came here? BH: When I came here, I lived in Danville, Illinois [06:34]. INT: Okay. BH: A town of about 35,000. INT: [affirmative] BH: And people were very, very nice to me. I can’t complain. But it was a -- still a hard life. You know, you live in a big city and then you come to a small town. You don’t know anybody at all. And, of course, I had no dealings with young people, because when they went to high school I went to work. INT: [affirmative] BH: But [07:00] it was better than going to Auschwitz [07:03]. You know? INT: And so, what -- did you have any English before you came to this country? BH: Yes. I had nine years of school -- sounds like nothing here. Our schools were much faster than English schools. INT: [affirmative] BH: I had four or five years of French and two years of English. INT: [affirmative] BH: So, I didn’t come here completely helpless. INT: [affirmative] BH: But, of course, I -- as I said, I had this accent. And this was during the Depression [07:37], which actually did not leave its shadow in a small town in Illinois [07:46] until World War II got underway. INT: [affirmative] Bill Hess 5 November 21, 2006; March 9, 2007 BH: Jobs were extremely scarce. They had coal mines, and the miners were well paid. But they only worked two or three days a week [08:00]. So it was very difficult, you know, to advance or anything like that. And I had no formal training. And they just put me on the floor and you learned -- picked up what you had to. INT: And so, what exactly were you doing for your job at that time? BH: Well, first I helped unpacking things and sorting deliveries, and taking care of supplies. And then I worked in a dry goods department. I was just a sales clerk. INT: [affirmative] BH: That’s not a very good job for a man, because there were two women who were also there. And most of the people who shop would be women for piece goods and stuff like that, and they’d rather have somebody like that wait on them. INT: [affirmative] BH: And yet, you know, you were the -- they looked at your sales books every day, whether you earned your keep, which I didn’t. But they paid me anyhow [09:00], because they were more or less friends of one [unintelligible] my -- INT: [affirmative] BH: -- uncle. INT: And so, when your parents came -- actually, let me back up. When you came, I assume you came over on a ship? BH: Well, that was the only way -- INT: That was pretty much the only way to do it. So -- BH: Unless you wanted to swim. [laughter] Bill Hess 6 November 21, 2006; March 9, 2007 INT: And so, did you come in through New York [09:23], then? BH: Yes. That was pretty much the big ships -- it was an American ship, the Manhattan [09:29] that I came over on. And that was a very pleasant experience, except for one day on a violent -- we had a very rough sea, and I had finally found out what it was like to be seasick. [laughter] INT: And so, were -- you were traveling by yourself, correct? BH: Yes. INT: Did -- you didn’t know anybody else on the ship? BH: No. The relatives who met me, the uncle, and aunt -- they were pretty well to do. They were in Maine for the summer. INT: [affirmative] BH: It was August -- they had [10:00] a very nice apartment next to the Plaza Hotel where I was allowed to stay until the people in Danville [10:07] were ready for me, which was about two weeks. And it was wonderful, you know, being in New York [10:13] -- a prime location.
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