Post Falls woman: 'You don't forget'

Therese Gold was a child when World War II came to her home in Luxembourg.

Today, 85 and living in Post Falls, she still remembers some of what happened, what was said, what she saw.

“You don’t forget things like that,” Gold said in a phone interview Thursday, the 80th anniversary of D-Day when Allied forces landed at Normandy.

Gold said after Germany invaded Luxembourg in May 1940, they controlled daily life.

“Until the Americans freed us, we were under a dictator. For four years, we were very much restricted as to what we could do,” she said.

She said after D-Day, around Christmas, American troops arrived and engaged the German troops there.

“Santa Claus didn’t come,” Gold said, laughing.

As the fighting waged outside their door, Gold, her parents and grandparents took shelter in the basement.

“They told us not to leave the house,“ Gold said.

But when she could, she tried to get a look at what was going on.

She recalled seeing Germans shooting at American soldiers, and seeing two German soldiers shot by American troops as they ran out a side door.

After Americans cleared her Luxembourg village of German troops, they befriended residents, and some ventured inside Gold’s childhood home.

“My grandfather was at the front door when the Americans came,” Gold said. “He couldn’t speak a word of English."

But they managed to communicate.

“The Americans were nice," Gold said. “They didn’t destroy anything.”

Gold said there was heavy snow at the time, which led to her one problem with the U.S. soldiers.

“They didn’t take their shoes off,” she said, laughing. “Otherwise, there was nothing to complain about.”

American troops were stationed outside Gold’s home for a few weeks, which turned out to be a good thing in an unexpected way.

Gold said her mother wasn’t well one day and collapsed. Americans were called to help, quickly gave her oxygen and she recovered.

“They came in and saved her,” Gold said.

It was months after the war ended before life returned to normal in Luxembourg, Gold said.

“I’m so grateful that the Americans came over,”  she said. “They gave their lives to save all of us.”

Gold later migrated to the United States and moved to Coeur d’Alene in the 1960s with her first husband. They later divorced and she married Frank Gold. They were together more than three decades before he died Jan. 5, 2017.

"He was the love of my life, my American husband," Gold said.

About five years ago, she moved to Garden Plaza, an assisted living center in Post Falls. 

On Thursday, Gold said D-Day’s anniversary brought back feelings and memories of Luxembourg’s liberation from Germany.

"It’s amazing what you remember,” she said.

Gold shared a final story about the Americans setting up a mess hall for troops outside her home in Luxembourg during the war.

They gave some bread to Gold’s family, and in turn, they gave some to the soldiers.

“They liked my mom’s bread way better than theirs,” Gold said, laughing.