Theresa Schistal’s Story – World War Two

Theresa was born in a small village called Mattersberg, just outside Vienna, Austria on the fifth of January 1931 and her baptismal name was given as Therisia. Her father, Johann was Hungarian and her mother Rosalia (Rosi) was Austrian. Theresa had three brothers and was born as the Nazi Party were coming to ascendancy in Germany, led by the Austrian-born Adolf Hitler.

Among the many traumatic events she experienced was one that involved her brother Walter who was ‘press ganged’ to join the German army. He escaped but was stopped and interrogated at a Russian checkpoint. They removed his boots and one of the Russian soldiers was told to take Walter into the nearby wood and shoot him. This soldier missed (deliberately) – and then told Walter to run just as fast as he could. Walter did and managed to escape and eventually walk the 60 kilometers to get home – barefoot. He said he would never forget that man’s act of kindness.

After the war, although Theresa had been granted Austrian citizenship on December 2 1946, as Austria began to emerge as a nation again, her experiences had been very traumatic and employment was difficult to find. She decided to seek work in England through the European Voluntary Workers Scheme. It must have been a major decision for an eighteen-year-old and she left Austria to travel to England alone.  After an initial reception in a European Voluntary Workers’ Hostel in York, she had gained employment in Salts Mill in 1949. She was also resident there in the ‘hostel provision’ developed by Salts mill managers of the time in order to receive European workers after World War Two.

Theresa’s story in Saltaire continues in a separate post (available from 24 April 2019).

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