too scared because the cattle were bellowing like that, and everything was all different from usual. Like as if the place was deserted.
I got goose bumps, I really did, it seemed so scary.
Something’s wrong, that’s what I kept on thinking. I felt like there was a bell ringing in my head. Same as an alarm bell when the fire engine’s coming out. So I ran home quick, I told my auntie and my dad.
Dad said I was to fetch Farmer Sterzer, because he wasn’t going over to that farm on his own.
So I went on, over to the Sterzers in Upper Tannöd.
Farmer Sterzer’s Dagmar was outside in the garden with her mother. Working on the garden beds.
I shouted to them way before I got there, I was in such a state. Asked if Farmer Sterzer was home, and he came out of the door right that moment. I told him there was something wrong up at the Danner place. No one was in, and the dog was whining and all that, and the cattle lowingin the shed. And I said my dad said to fetch him to go over there with my dad. Because my dad didn’t want to go alone.
So Farmer Sterzer called Alois right away. Alois is the farmhand at the Sterzer place, he’s going to marry Dagmar.
Then I went over to Tannöd and the Danner farm with Farmer Sterzer and Alois.
It was just before we reached the house we met my dad. He’d been waiting for Farmer Sterzer there. Then he went on up to the Danner farm with us.
And then we found them.
Well, not me, because my dad wouldn’t let me go into the house. He said I was to stay outside.
And after Farmer Sterzer and Alois came out of the barn again, white as chalk they were, I was really glad I hadn’t gone in with them.
My dad told me to go down to the village. “And tell them they’d better call the police from the mayor’s house.” So that’s what I did.
I fetched my bike and went over to the village, I went to the mayor’s, and I shouted out how they were all dead at Danner’s. All of them murdered dead. I shouted it in everyone’s face, even the mayor’s.
Johann Sterzer, age 52, farmer in Upper Tannöd
I was sitting in the living room. I saw young Hansl through the window. He was waving his arms around, and he kept on shouting something.
Right away, I guessed something had happened, but I thought it must be at the Hauer place.
So I came straight out of the house. Hansl says to me, “Dad sent me because there’s nothing stirring at the Danners’.”’
He, that’s Hansl, he’d been to look around on their farm today, he said, and there wasn’t anyone at home and the dog was whining terribly. And the cattle were restless too.
“But Dad doesn’t fancy going there alone,” he told me, so I called Alois and we went over to the Tannöd farm with Hansl.
I’d noticed myself there was nothing stirring there. When I was plowing on Saturday, in thefield next to Danner’s land, I didn’t see anyone at all the whole time.
It was odd, yes, but I thought no more of it.
They’ll be in the woods, that’s all it is, I thought to myself.
Hauer was waiting for us just before we got to the house. We all went up to the farmyard together. I saw at once that the door of the machinery shed was open.
Hauer knows his way around the farm since that business with Barbara. He was in and out of the place a lot back then.
“We can get into the barn through the shed. There’s a door into the cowshed from there, and we can go on into the house from the cowshed,” he said to me and Alois.
He told Hansl he’d better stay outside. That was all right by Alois and me, so it was just the three of us went into the shed. Sure enough, there was a little door there. On the back wall of the shed, but it was fastened shut with a hook or something on the other side.
I was going out again to see if there wasn’t some other way into the house.
But Hauer took my sleeve. “That door’s so flimsy we can just push it in,” he says.
Alois agreed with him, so the three of us braced ourselves against that little
I got goose bumps, I really did, it seemed so scary.
Something’s wrong, that’s what I kept on thinking. I felt like there was a bell ringing in my head. Same as an alarm bell when the fire engine’s coming out. So I ran home quick, I told my auntie and my dad.
Dad said I was to fetch Farmer Sterzer, because he wasn’t going over to that farm on his own.
So I went on, over to the Sterzers in Upper Tannöd.
Farmer Sterzer’s Dagmar was outside in the garden with her mother. Working on the garden beds.
I shouted to them way before I got there, I was in such a state. Asked if Farmer Sterzer was home, and he came out of the door right that moment. I told him there was something wrong up at the Danner place. No one was in, and the dog was whining and all that, and the cattle lowingin the shed. And I said my dad said to fetch him to go over there with my dad. Because my dad didn’t want to go alone.
So Farmer Sterzer called Alois right away. Alois is the farmhand at the Sterzer place, he’s going to marry Dagmar.
Then I went over to Tannöd and the Danner farm with Farmer Sterzer and Alois.
It was just before we reached the house we met my dad. He’d been waiting for Farmer Sterzer there. Then he went on up to the Danner farm with us.
And then we found them.
Well, not me, because my dad wouldn’t let me go into the house. He said I was to stay outside.
And after Farmer Sterzer and Alois came out of the barn again, white as chalk they were, I was really glad I hadn’t gone in with them.
My dad told me to go down to the village. “And tell them they’d better call the police from the mayor’s house.” So that’s what I did.
I fetched my bike and went over to the village, I went to the mayor’s, and I shouted out how they were all dead at Danner’s. All of them murdered dead. I shouted it in everyone’s face, even the mayor’s.
Johann Sterzer, age 52, farmer in Upper Tannöd
I was sitting in the living room. I saw young Hansl through the window. He was waving his arms around, and he kept on shouting something.
Right away, I guessed something had happened, but I thought it must be at the Hauer place.
So I came straight out of the house. Hansl says to me, “Dad sent me because there’s nothing stirring at the Danners’.”’
He, that’s Hansl, he’d been to look around on their farm today, he said, and there wasn’t anyone at home and the dog was whining terribly. And the cattle were restless too.
“But Dad doesn’t fancy going there alone,” he told me, so I called Alois and we went over to the Tannöd farm with Hansl.
I’d noticed myself there was nothing stirring there. When I was plowing on Saturday, in thefield next to Danner’s land, I didn’t see anyone at all the whole time.
It was odd, yes, but I thought no more of it.
They’ll be in the woods, that’s all it is, I thought to myself.
Hauer was waiting for us just before we got to the house. We all went up to the farmyard together. I saw at once that the door of the machinery shed was open.
Hauer knows his way around the farm since that business with Barbara. He was in and out of the place a lot back then.
“We can get into the barn through the shed. There’s a door into the cowshed from there, and we can go on into the house from the cowshed,” he said to me and Alois.
He told Hansl he’d better stay outside. That was all right by Alois and me, so it was just the three of us went into the shed. Sure enough, there was a little door there. On the back wall of the shed, but it was fastened shut with a hook or something on the other side.
I was going out again to see if there wasn’t some other way into the house.
But Hauer took my sleeve. “That door’s so flimsy we can just push it in,” he says.
Alois agreed with him, so the three of us braced ourselves against that little
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