Hallo. Sie sehen Interview Project Germany.
Heute treffen wir Willi.
Willi ist ein pensionierter Schneider.
Viel Spaß beim Interview.
Willi Jördens,
93 years old.
I don’t know exactly how it was.
I just know it from having been told.
My father was a soldier, too,
and had to die when he was 33.
He held me tightly in his arms and had said,
“They’ll make something out of you.”
And died.
And I came …
When I was 13 …
To one of my mother’s cousins.
He was a master tailor, he said, “I’ll take him on.”
“He can help me, I’m building and then
he can also start an apprenticeship.”
“That way you’ll be rid of him yet.”
And it wasn’t right with me, at first. I wanted something
completely different, but what could I’ve done? I just had to.
I had to do what they said.
But then I quickly became a fairly good tailor. They said.
And this cousin of my mother’s was happy to employ me.
And, it was just before my master's exam …
I got drafter and I had to become a soldier.
I was 17, 18. And I got wounded.
Then I thought, “So, I almost had my master’s diploma.”
“You’ve got a paralyzed arm, that’s one arm gone…
but even if it takes me a year. I’ll take the master’s exam.”
“That’s the only chance left.”
And it did take me a long time.
It took three months or so to make a jacket.
Which you otherwise make in a week
or a couple of days or so.
And then …
The piece was finished and then I went with it
to Münster and had a master tailor …
Confirm that I’d made it myself, with one arm, under his supervision.
And I’ve submitted it and then it wasn't long,
before I received my master's diploma.
Yes …
I can’t regret anything,
because what I’ve done, I always saw it as a duty.
I have not …
Offended anybody.
I just worked, worked, I just went working.
I can't say that I regret anything.
