Emil Klier

“First we came to Czechoslovakia in 1985. Back then it was still terrible. Our sons and step-daughters came with us. Forty years past Hitler´s death. We went with Čedok, paid everything in advance and for example in a pub we experienced the following. We had a long table and a chair was missing so I went to borrow a chair from a neighbouring table. No one was sitting in the entire pub apart from us. But a waiter came to us shouting to return it. So I first had to ask, if I could borrow it. That was socialism. That´s how it was.”

“From Saxony I tried to get my mother to Bavaria as it was a Russian province. Also she needed a departure permit to be entitled to alimentary tickets. My mother was displaced from Czechoslovakia to Saxony at the very end of 1946 or at the beginning of 1947. First she had to stay at home to train Czech women in the factory. We were corresponding together, and she got almost all my letters, but I received none of hers. I was not so easy to get her to Saxony. First I had to prove that my mother has arranged accommodation in Bavaria. The farmer I worked for, confirmed it for me, so I would sleep over with mum in my room. But that didn’t work out, so we transported her illegally.”