Maria Miksch

* 1931

  • „That was the problem. We were always called outsiders. Outsiders, so to say, God knows there were any. And even then my dad was mad about it. We were in the Church in Röttingen, and the priest also presented the pulpit and said, "This is the scrap unloaded here." And my father was icy cold. He said, "We're not rubbish, we cannot help it here. We never did it voluntarily. "Well, but that was the attitude at the time. And we, you have to imagine. Because outside the Gau it was a purely a rural area and they did not have much war. They were short of everything. And so there were so many strangers there and we as young things, and sometimes were perhaps a bit overdressed for these young gentlemen. So they were totally after us. And my mother always said, "Well, we have nothing, so we are nothing. What do you want to do? "The one peasant woman said at that time: "Well, they'll be glad if they can make a cheese sandwich. "So we were, so to say, excepted. That is how we were treated."

  • “We had one of two bonus points; we were German - we could communicate using the language. And we shared the same religion. And things became easier for us in time. We were pretty... And today, if you hear the Bavarian government, they always say: The Sudeten Germans are the fourth tribe, the fourth tribe of Bavaria. Well, we are. I've also observed that. It did not take long for anybody who could work to start digging and see again the living quarters, to build a new house. And so on. So I really have to say. Our people were diligent and industrious. And that way we contributed to the construction of the Federal Republic too.

  • „At the time, during the war, some people could not be trusted. You just did not know. Is that meant honestly? Or does the person not mean it? You had to hold back a lot, choose your words carefully. This was not so easy. And I know chaplains in Vidnava and we had the priest's seminar in Vidnava. The professors, if a single word was said, were gone. They'd be right away.” “Then everybody was scared. “ “Yes, they say, you should keep your distance and your mouth shut. And so we have much withdrawn, more and more. And that's just not nice, if you only have to be frightened - you say a word too much and you´re next."

  • “Many women with small children were raped. They had not been able to hide. Imagine you have the children around you and a Russian is coming in. You have no way. And they did not pay any attention to the children. That was... then also different pregnancies came about. And then the men came home from the front." "Whose child is that? And so on." "There was so much noise. Indeed, if you did not experienced anything alike, you don’t understand.

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    Höchberg, 18.03.2017

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Sometimes I think I was really lucky. Very lucky indeed.

img20170319_01105850.jpg (historic)
Maria Miksch
zdroj: Archiv der Zeitzeugin, Dominik Michálek 2017

Maria was born on 2nd April, 1931 in Groß Krosse (Velká Kraš). Her parents, Johann and Emma Pache, had two older daughters, Elisabeth and Margarete. Elisabeth died one month before Mary‘s birth, on her eighth birthday. When she was coming to the world she did not get enough oxygen and could not walk nor talk. In Velká Kraš there was a shooting on September 22, 1938, when the Czech officials were driven out of the free corps from Vidnava. All the time Maria was hiding under the corner bench in the kitchen. Women and children were then evacuated, because they feared revenge on the Czech side and the mobilization to the Baltic Sea to Kolberg. There they were for a whole month. War time was not easy: „No one could be trusted.“ On 7th November 1944 the father called the family behind the barn. In the sky they observed the bombing of Vratislav. A few minutes later an RAF bomber raided 7 bombs. In January 1945 several refugees came from Upper Silesia and slept over at their home. In the night the horses were fed and they went further to Moravia. But when the Scherle family came on 27th January, Mrs. Scherle was pregnant and they stayed some time longer. On the third day the little Hans Scherle was born. When on 8th May 1945 the Russian riders came to the village, all the girls had to hide. The father prepared a hiding place for them in the barn, where they spent the night. They worked in disguise as boys on the field. After the war they got a Czech „administrator“ in their farm, who sold the whole crop and then disappeared. Sister Margarete had to go to forced labour to Bořitov. She fled on a bicycle and on the third day got arrested by the police in Jindřichov. Margarete was sent to jail in Šumperk, and after four weeks was released to go home. The new administrator confiscated the entire house; the family had to go to the grandma‘s. On 30th July 1946 they were shipped with 30 kg luggage to the MUNA in Miklasovice. As their carriage went through Prague, people threw bottles at it. They came to Röttingen in Bavaria. The first years in the new homeland were difficult. Once the pastor at the mass even called them „debris“. In the years 1946-1948 Maria visited a vocational school. As her pastime she had been playing the theater with her sister and several other girls. Later she trained as a furry seamstress in Ochsenfurt, but unfortunately she could not find a job. After a long time she finally found a job at a sewing workshop in Ochsenfurt. She enjoyed sewing a lot. In October 1956 she married Paul Miksch, who was also a native of the town and who came from the town of Šluknov in the Czech Republic. Maria has three daughters - Hannelore, Claudia and Martina. Today she is not able to travel to Velká Kraš - her nerves could not stand it anymore.