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Helmuth's Death

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It was June 1974 and I had just been to the United Kingdom for a few weeks. My father told me, that the army was after me again, but as I was not in the country, they could not get me. As I left early June for Australia, I was "out of reach" for the Hitlers.

I arrived in Sydney, Australia and lived there for 18 months. But I missed my life style and my friends very much. One thing I noticed was that the young women were actually looking at me. Something that did not seem to happen in Austria. Had I stayed in Australia long enough, I would have ended up with a girlfriend.

Sydney became my new home. Australia was very different from Europe.

The People were so gentle and loving. I was there during the Marcos Dictatorship, but live was not even nearly as depressing as in "democratic Austria". 

A McDonnell Douglas DC8 of Philippine Airlines flight PR202 flew me into the loving Philippines.

In between the big office blocks were all the slum area, it was in there where live was truly loving and caring.

When I was there I typed a few articles in the newspaper. With the Marcos government there were restrictions but there was a way around it. There was always a way around problems and difficulties with authorities.  

Where ever I went, people were genuinely loving and caring. Even the Marcos Dictatorship of the Philippines did not throw people into the army. It was cruel and criminal, but not as cruel and criminal as the Austrian Hitlers.

I stayed in the Philippines until June 76 and then made a very big mistake which until today I can not explain to myself. I went back to Austria. I suppose I missed my parents and my friends. Returning back to the Philippines to get married in November 76 was a brief affair. I must say one thing positive about Austria. It was the Austrian Consul to the Philippines Mr. Irvin Cryde. He went beyond his duties to help my wife to get a passport from the Philippine Authorities. Far beyond his duties. There are some very special Austrians somewhere and he was a very special character. He took my wife in a taxi, went personally to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs where everyone seemed to know him, surpassed the crowed of people and personally asked the head of the department to issue a passport for my wife. He also paid the taxi fare. Nobody had ever asked for that kind of service. What a terrific human being!

One more thing I say here is that according to the Austrian Consul, most of the Austrian men in the Philippines, found themselves a Philippine woman to marry. He was puzzled by that. I certainly was not. The male female ratio to me seemed 7 women for each man. The men who went there they had a real good choice.

In March the following year my wife joint me in Austria, when she arrived in a Snow Storm. 

I came under pressure to register as resident in Austria, which I was trying to avoid as I did not want the army to know that I was back, but eventually I had no choice. It was then that I realized that I had made a mistake. I should not have returned. I should have gone back to Australia. It was impossible to keep the army away for the next twelve years to come. 

My Australian re-entry permit had expired and I was wondering what to do and where to go. 

I am in the centre of this picture, taken in the Philippines. Philippine people were gentle, loving and kind. A country that truly made up for the unloving hateful Austrian "Hitler type of society".

I was always "transformed" every time I entered that country. This picture is taken with my wife's uncle.

I am in the centre of this picture. This picture was taken in Cebu City, in the Central Philippines, the Visayas.

Taken in Austria at the Hohe Wand in Lower Austria, Herminia and I, June 1977.