Guest speaker recounts childhood in Salzburg during World War II at James Island Neighborhood Council meeting

At a James Island Neighborhood Council meeting, guest speaker Miss Hines recounted her childhood in Salzburg, Austria, during the 1938 annexation by Nazi Germany and the subsequent years of World War II, and she showed home movies from that period.

“This is the eightieth anniversary of the end of World War 2 . . . I'm 91,” Miss Hines said as she opened her presentation and described her early childhood in Salzburg and how life changed after the Anschluss in 1938. She walked attendees through photographs and family films, noting scenes of Hermann Göring and the arrival of German forces in her city.

Hines described life under wartime conditions: air-raid shelters carved into nearby mountains, rationing, instances of bombing that damaged Salzburg’s cathedral and the old town, and the experience of surrender in early May 1945. She also described how her father served during the war and returned years later, and how she later worked at the American consulate before marrying and moving to the United States.

She told the council her family’s 9½-millimeter films were digitized after the University of South Carolina identified a transfer option; the films had been stored for decades. “I was very lucky to get these movies transferred,” she said, describing scenes she had not viewed in many years.

Hines closed by recounting postwar life, including the American occupation of parts of Austria, her subsequent time in England, and her eventual settlement in Charleston and on James Island in the 1950s. She said she has returned to Austria multiple times and described family history including her father’s later illness.

The presentation functioned as a historical reminiscence for the meeting; no council actions resulted from the talk. Several audience members and council leaders thanked Hines for sharing her photographs and films.