Walter Haip, 86, shared his story with Homewood Middle School students about what it was like to have bombs dropped close to his home in Austria each night during WWII and how life changed once Hitler took over.
Haip was 9 when Hitler marched into Vienna, Austria (his homeland), and took over. He described changes in Austria after Hitler and the Nazi regime moved in. One example he gave was how they used to drive on the left side of the road, and then began driving on the right side. Other changes the students found interesting included the Catholic crucifix was removed from his classroom, many of his teachers were removed and new teachers came in to teach the Nazi way of life, and they were not
allowed to have radios anymore. He also had to join the Hitler Youth and go to Hitler Youth meetings.
The students in Darby Baird’s sixth-grade history class were fascinated by Haip’s stories. He showed them pictures from his home in Austria and with Soviet soldiers, and he described how he helped in the war effort by raising silkworms and then donating the silk to make parachutes.
Haip eventually moved to America as a cabinet maker and was also a ski instructor in Ohio. He moved to Alabama in the 1980s and has lived here ever since with his wife. They have six grandkids and 11 great-grandkids.
– Submitted by Homewood City Schools.
