and I was amongst the German people there,
we had to employee them on the RAF station
because there was heavy work to be done.
We employed to do the heavy lifting of batteries,
you know, and things like that.
And they were very arrogant.
They thought they'd won the war
and they were telling us what to do
and what not to do and it was very upsetting.
And in particular, one of my,
I think my 20th birthday, when I was in Germany,
my parents went to Selfridge,
Selfridge in Central London,
and recorded a birthday message
and sent it over, a gramophone record to me,
you know, to record, to listen to on a gramophone.
Now, there was a gramophone in the library
and I went in and asked if I could play
my record on the gramophone.
And it was a German in charge of the library
and he said, "Absolutely not."
I said, "But why not?"
He said, "Because this gramophone is to play
"records in the library here.
"That isn't in the library so you can't play it."
Well I wasn't gonna have that so I spoke to my officer
and I told him, "Hey."
He went down there and he said,
"Why can't Aircraftsman Levy play this record?
"His parents have sent him a birthday greeting.
"Why are you stopping him from playing it?"
He said, "Because it's not in the library
"and I decided what plays on there."
So the commanding officer said to him,
"Thank you very much.
"We've had enough of your services.
"Goodbye."
(chuckles) And off he went.
And we found that with a lot of the employees.
They tried to tell us the whole time what to do,
what not to do, as though they were the victors
and we were the underlings.
