Frau Schöttke hosted three other American students for dinner in addition to Marcus, Jon and me. She is from Salzburg and has taken in students studying here for a number of years, so they could have the chance to live in an Austrian home environment. Even one of her former residents, Anna, who is Spanish and now living independently in the city, joined us.

I thought I was in a comedy club during the beginning of the meal, as Frau Schöttke entertained us with jokes. She is a sweet, older woman, yet knows how to get college students rolling on the floor with laughter.

But with three history major students seated at the dinner table that night, it was inevitable that she would be asked about World War II. Her eyes were glassy as she recalled her experiences during the war, but maybe that was just a result of the glass of whiskey that she drank.

Frau Schöttke was 9 when the war ended. Her father was a Nazi during World War II, working as a neighborhood watchman. One of his duties was to warn residents of bombings because their home in Salzburg was near a targeted airplane-part production center.

When asked about her mother, Frau Schöttke said “she was the opposite” of her father. She also had brothers and sisters, but didn’t elaborate on their individual personalities.

Frau Schöttke said she was excited the first time the bombs fell because it was during school and she was thrilled to miss class. She didn’t tuck and roll under a desk, but instead ran away from the building. She was told that she be safer if she ran into a field or woods, since it was less likely that those areas would be targeted.

The alarms sounded frequently during the war, Frau Schöttke said. She took cover in a bomb shelter when she was at her house. She said that she never knew what to expect when it was time to leave the shelter, whether everything would be erased above the ground.

Even though Frau Schöttke was a young child during the war, she said that she will never forget it because it was so extraordinary.

The dinner conversation then transitioned to a weekend trip in Croatia. Frau Schöttke offered to take Marcus, Jon and any other students there for an unbeatable bargain price. Right now the only conflict with the trip is the excursions planned for the World War II history class, which many students are in.

I’m not taking that course, but I know that if I want to listen to a personal perspective about the war, I just need to travel to an apartment across town.