Tag #157075 - Interview #79440 (Leo Luster)

During the First World War my father worked for the military police at the North Station [Today: Praterstern]. During the Hapsburg monarchy, the North Station was the largest in Vienna with important connections to Brno, Katowice, Krakow, and Lviv. For many immigrants from the Crown Lands of Galicia, Bukovina, Bohemia, and Moravia, it was the gate to Vienna. My father inspected the arrivals there. He spoke a little Hungarian, a little Polish, and little Russian, and said he learned those languages in the military. He often told stories about this time. Back then a lot of food was smuggled in because people were starving. For example, women smuggled eggs under their hats, and once one of the military police officers hit a woman over her hat – you can’t even imagine what happened there. That was fun for me to picture. My father was not a war enthusiast like many who became that way during the First World War. I don’t know where he stood politically, whether he was a socialist – but I don’t think so. My parents were mainly interested in things that had to do with Jews.