He recalled an instance in 1945 when a German doctor in Munich saved his life. Due to the family responsibility laws, he should have been turned over to the Gestapo and would have been taken to a concentration camp or executed. But the doctor – whose name he does not even know – allowed him to escape.
He also remembered how his Austrian governess had courageously taken him in when his father was arrested, risking her own safety in doing so.
“She could never get a job again,” he reflected.
Janet von Schuschnigg describes her husband’s family as “centered on God.” Even after all they’ve been through, she said, they are still good Catholics.
“You don’t find so many good Catholics in Austria anymore,” she continued, explaining that the Church has undergone heavy persecution.
Her husband added that while there are many good people leading “a happy life” in Austria, they have largely been forced to “forget their past” in order to do so.
For him, however, faith has played a significant role in both good and bad times.
He recalled a hand-written papal blessing that was given to his family that gave him confidence and helped him trust in God during difficult circumstances.
One time, he recounted, he was able to smuggle the Eucharist to his father in the concentration camp.
This was only possible, he explained, because the guards had been there for four years, and they had become friends.
The guards were “kind” and “decent” people, he reflected, although they would have shot his parents without hesitation if ordered to do so.
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
When von Schuschnigg attempted to tell some family friends about the things he had witnessed in the concentration camp, they brushed him off, refusing to believe his stories and defending the Nazis.
Kurt von Schuschnigg does not consider his actions particularly heroic, especially since at the time no one thought of themselves a a heroe.
“We were survivors,” he said.
After World War II, von Schuschnigg’s family was liberated and moved to America, where they became citizens.
While he has not forgotten the atrocities he witnessed and experienced, von Schuschnigg has forgiven those responsible for causing his family pain – an ability that his wife says “impressed me incredibly.”
Kurt von Schuschnigg explained that he does not blame those who hurt him because he knows that “they did it out of fear.”