Hugo Belcredi

Hugo was born in Czechoslovakia in Lisen on 13 May 1923 on the main family estate. He and his siblings had their early education at home by various tutors. To make sure that Hugo had an inheritance, his father negotiated an adoption by a well-to-do childless relative, Andrian who worked for the Corps Diplomatique for Austria. Because of the adoption, Hugo was forced to become an Austrian citizen, a fact that would have great ramifications for him later on. He was also to be educated in Austria in the Jesuit school Kalksburg. Noone know at the time the great disastrous events that would take over Europe. The family were anti-Nazi, indeed, my uncle had spent years in a concentration camp in Germany as editor of the highly regarded Bavarian newspaper, as he allowed anti-Nazi articles to be published. However, Hugo was rushed through school by a process called “Kriegs Matura” so that, at 19 years old, he could become cannon fodder on the icy battlefields of Russia. He told us of being caught in white blizzards, losing all sense of direction, which way is the enemy, which way is your own side. He told us about an unpopular Oberleutnant Schmidt who was shot in the back by his own men. He told us of being served soup which was already starting to freeze and of ditching his heavy equipment when he had to run. Indeed he almost got court-martialed for this. He told us of another soldier, a friend, saving his life by shooting a Russian who was just taking aim to shoot my father. Hugo suffered frost bite and was taken away to a hospital in Germany. He was determined never to return to battle and made sure his wounds would never heal with the aid of scissors. The doctors could never explain how it was that he did not recover, and from this stems Hugo’s distain for doctors. How could it be this easy to fool them? Returning home on furlough, he decided to go AWOL and hid in his beloved forests on the family estate in Jimramov. As a deserter, he would have been shot by the retreating German army, as a German he would have been shot by the advancing Russian army. After Britian, Russia and the USA, the victorious powers, carved up Europe behind closed doors in Yalta, the fate of Czechoslovakia was sealed. Hugo married my mother, Marie, only 19 years old in 1949, and luckily, this time for his Austrian citizenship, was allowed to leave Czechoslovakia. Returning back across the border to try and persuade his older brother to leave, Marie and Hugo were arrested attempting to cross the border back into Austria and spent 3 months in gaol. Life for Marie and Hugo was hard but they did not lose their sense of fun. They sold an old swimming costume of Marie’s and with the money bought chocolate, for example. They worked a cook and valet for a wealthy French industrialist in Lille in France. Hugo had lots of ideas on how to save work for himself and often got into trouble by the lady of the house. For example, instead of cleaning the floor by hand square by square, he distributed kerosene over the whole floor and cleaned it with a big broom. Many times, Madame Defavan complained to my poor mother, but my father was not to be moved. Anyway, she didn’t understand his French and called it Chinoise (Chinese). He tells of having to wait with the other chauffeurs in Monte Carlo and seeing a man come out after gambling his fortune away and shooting himself in the head. Tragedy then struck in 1950 and their first born son died at three months. After that they lived in Bregenz, working for a French Colonel, for a short while, where I was born and then Munich where my sister, Anni was born. After the Korean war, they fled to Australia fearing the Russians would move on to Western Europe and settled in Condell Park. Here my father supported my mother as she studied medicine by looking after us kids and working to pay for the household, my mother’s studies and our private school expenses. When my mother was away, my father exercised his culinary gifts which consisted of 2 dishes – scrambled eggs and tinned ravioli. We were only allowed to have our icecream after we choked down the main course. I’ll now let my sister Anni/daughter Stephanie share with you, their memories.