Description
Mr. Weir describes a demonstration he witnessed in Frankfurt. He describes the way in which the Germans dealt with the malcontents.
John Weir
Mr. Weir was born in Toronto on July 22, 1919. His father was DSO MC in the First World War, a colonel. He was machine gunner in the 19th Battalion, and was gassed at Vimy and suffered from then on with asthma. After seeing the horrific pictures of the trench warfare from his father's service, Mr. Weir decided to join the Air Force rather than serve in the trenches. He joined the service the day after war was declared and began his training in Winnipeg. He started off as a pilot officer-provisional but wanted to be a fighter pilot. During his service, Mr. Weir was shot down in Barth and captured. He was a prisoner in a Gestapo jail, and was involved in "The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III". He was moved to various prison camps and witnessed atrocities of the Holocaust. He eventually escaped on a forced-march from Bremerhaven to Lübbecke by bribing a German guard.
Transcript
Frankfurt, I think it was Frankfurt am Main, yeah. The, I was looking out the window and there was a great crowd of people coming along the main street. It may not have been Frankfurt because I don't remember the streets being that wide. But anyhow, there were several thousand people carrying placards and stuff like that. And they were demonstrating against the brutality of the SS and the Gestapo. And cause a lot, by that time, well I think it was 1936 or so, a lot of the Dachau and those places were being loaded with Jewish people and with Gypsies and mal-contents, that meant anyone who wasn't a Nazi or they were causing trouble. And they were disappearing. They had people, these people were demonstrating against that. Down here at this end, were a bunch of black shirts and they had a water gun ship, truck and what they used to do, they had a high powered hose and they could knock you over with it. And there were too many people, it wasn't gonna work. So one of the officers who was going to be contested, who was gonna be challenged I guess, he took out his flare pistol, and he fired two shots, one there and one there. And it divided the crowd in three and then he blasted them with the water cannon, and that was the end of the demonstration. Smart. It is a very interesting thing too, you know, if you want good protection, a flare gun is better than most things. Especially if you've got a lot of people coming after you, people don't like fires and you can't put a flare out with water. So, he was smart, and that was the end of the demonstration.