Werner Zimmermann

“He was still inside the barn. The Russians came again looking for something. He thought they were looking for him. But I only know that from those who have been observing. Back then we were somewhere inside the house. I was only eleven years, not even eleven. In any case, there was my father. After that they said they did nothing to the man. They had seen he was not in the army, neither was a functionary, he was in the Czech army, so he had a military passport. We had no reprisals. Yes, there was my mother with four children. And then the Czech commissioners have come, mayor as one has said. And the militia especially, which was often a bit hard. You had to deliver everything: radios, whatever, jewellery. You had to deliver al that. The militia has always come from Freudenthal. There was a camp. There were then those, who had to do with the party, which came here. Obviously back then I do not know what was going on there. It was the word of mouth, what I heard. Stuff I did not experience myself."

“She did not know now yet – will anyone do anything? Until someone actually agreed to work as a grave digger. Jump on. We drove him to the cemetery with the truck. Wrapped in a carpet or whatever. There were three or two more killed by the Russians during the invasion. They were buried together. It was simple, just throw him in and more ground on top." "Were they all together in one grave?" "Yes, indeed. Just next to each other. These are just the experiences, which, as you get older, are really imprinted. They come back again. This has not been very easy for my mother. Well, just the kind of things. Nevertheless, I was up there now in the cemetery, but can never find exactly, where the place is now, because now it is all covered with grass.

We children were lying on top of the things that had been arranged there. There were forty people squeezed up together. Indeed up there. I did not know at all where we went. Via Prague... and then, just that. Just before the border, they threw the white N off the train. "" Yes? "" They all did. And the Americans practically organized it all, as Bavaria was already an American zone. There we were gotten rid of lice. That was the first thing the Americans did; to cover us with a powder all over. They first thought that loud and lousy people were coming, or something. Indeed the Americans had no idea, what kind of people were coming there. So what I often read now: the Czechs, this leadership. When I tell the Czechs, then I do not want to say it all, but the leadership, which of course has said how many there are, and of course everything has a bit trivialised."