Olga Chotová

* 1937

  • "Of course, at the end of the war, the Germans were very, very scared. Some even jumped into the Janov dam, which is still in operation, there is a dam above Janov. Several Germans jumped there. I have such an interesting memory of a German kneeling in front of my father. The child remembers that when she sees an adult man on his knees. He really wanted my father to take his business, which of course he didn't do. Next to as, a real SS man lived, I still remember his black uniform. He quickly vanished, nobody knew where. Lot of them escaped, as they said, through the hills to Germany. On the borders, many of them were beaten and robbed by the "Revolutionary guards". Some of them behave very, very badly and violently towards those Germans. Some of the Germans were good people. Not so many of them belonged to the SS, a lot of German miners lived in Litvinov and they were members of the Social Democracy (party)."

  • "The bombing has been frequent since 1944. The first raid took place in such a way that people didn't really know what was going on. Because the German units, placed around Litvinov, were shooting very often, the people did not realise. I was playing in the garden and the people around us started screaming from the windows, that they shot a plane above Medibori, at that time, Schoenbach, and that we shall rum home immediately. When I started to attend school, during the raids, the pupils which lived nearby were sent home, myslef included. The pupils who lived far away were sent to the school cellar. The interesting thing was, that everything always run very smoothly, in a very disciplined manner. The pupils were silent, they did not dare make a sound and obediently walked into the cellar. There was always a pre-emergency. Due to that, we usually made it home in time. And my father even managed to return home on a bike from the chemical factory, because he always said, that when we are supposed die, then together. Sometimes he did not manage that, when the raid followed immediately after the pre-emergency. Once the raid was so strong, that we believed we will not leave the cellar alive, whole house was shaking, the lights went out, the doors to the cellar were blocked. The bombs accidentaly hit the church in Litvinov.

  • "My father warned me because there was a looting right away that if I brought something home he will beat me up. My father didn't beat me up, but he had a strong hand and he meant it. I was just watching people from the two hotels near the center carry salami, butter and other food. I just stared enviously on what I had never seen during the war. But I didn't bring anything home. The big looting didn't start until a few days later when the people returned from their holidays. There was a lot to loot because there were a few factory villas around Litvinov. There was a lot of nice cut glass, furcoats, etc. These people went back and took the looted things with them to somewhere around Central Bohemia, to several villages. The Czechs who left before the war returned again, mostly back to their homes. Sometimes, they had problems with the looting guards in their houses. I'm just saying this because it is interesting."

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Ústí nad Labem, 14.07.2021

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    délka: 01:14:01
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After the war, the Czech came looting to Litvinov

Olga Chotová, 1970s
Olga Chotová, 1970s
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Olga Chotová, née Guhrá, was born on February 5, 1937 into a mixed marriage, her mother was Jewish and her father Czech. After the Munich dictatorship and the German occupation of the Sudetenland, her parents refused to leave Litvínov and also refused to accept the citizenship of the „Reich“. As a child, Olga experienced the bombing of a chemical plant in Záluží near Litvínov and the bombs falling behind the church in Litvínov, where she lived with her parents. During the war, her mother was protected from transport to the concentration camp by marriage, until in February 1945 she was summoned to deportation to Terezín. However, the transport did not leave Most. The witness experienced the end of the war as well as the fear of the Germans and the post-war looting of the Czechs at the border. The father handed over the business to the Communists voluntarily in 1948. Subsequently, he joined the Czechoslovak Army Mine. In the 1950s, Olga was accepted to anuniversity, but she was unabe to start her studies, she had to take care of her sick father, her mother died shortly after the war as a result of suffering during the transport. Olga did not agree with the communist regime, she managed to win the fight oveer the house she inherited after the death of her parents in Litvínov, where she lives to this day. As a teacher, she taught a number of famous Litvínov hockey players, Olympic medalists from Nagano in 1998.