On April 8, 1930, I turned 15 years old and, on August 23 in Buenos Aires, I married Johann SELLNER, because my mother forced me. She had a lot of fear that someone else would take me away. One man wanted me very much and told me that I should run away with him. He knew that I could not marry yet. But he took me to his aunt, and I remained there until I was old enough for us to marry. Often I said, “At 15 years, you are still a child!” They had submitted a written request for us to marry without me knowing about it. My father did not want the marriage. He always said to my mother, “You see that she does not want to marry. So leave her in peace!” Because we are used to my parents, my little brother Peter said to my mother, “Don’t you have enough children? You don’t still need another one.” Then, later, I always said to my mother that she should have more understanding, like him.

At that time, many girls ran away from home if their parents did not want them to go with a boy. You couldn’t look for anybody there. At that time, Buenos Aires was a city of eight million people. People did not need to register themselves if they moved. Many people were outside, so no one knew that they were there. We also disembarked from the ship without announcing our arrival somewhere. Children came into world, which people did not announce at all. So, that’s how it was there.

After I married, I went to work in the glass factory, where my husband already worked. I worked on a machine there, which engraved patterns on the glasses. The glasses went into an acid, so that the pattern was etched in. In this glass factory, there were also two men from our village: Anton BUTSCHLER and Johann ZELLER.

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