Anna Fischer

Yes, lots of people did it, many of them crossed at Jägershof or Heuhof and so on. Lots of people were crossing the border back then and at night they were secretly moving their belongings such as duvets, flour or whatever they could, like I said. My mother got back the sewing machine she owned this way, and it’s still standing in my daughter’s dining room to this day. And also one crockery basket which is full of dishes, plates and similar things, that was also my mother’s, that was also hers. That’s what they smuggled at night. It cost some of them their lives. When the Czech’s shouted: “Stůj!” if you didn’t stop, they would shoot you.

In 1990 the border was opened and we wanted to go through Všeruby to Hyršov. My sisters came with me, that time we went to the cemetery and looked for our father’s grave. The cemetery was full of stinging nettles and rocks, completely overgrown. So we didn’t find the grave. And when we were about to leave, it’s as if I heard him speak: “Turn around, you can find the grave!” So I went there alone and found the grave. A little miracle, don’t you think? As if he’d told me to go back and look some more, that he was sure I could find it. And that’s exactly what happened. And then we dug up a tiny plant from next to the cemetery, a lime-tree. That lime-tree now stands next to the chapel I had built and it’s almost thirty metres tall today.

It was clear that since the war was over, the Czechs would get the upper hand. They were able to pick out houses in advance, they rode to Domažlice and got the property transferred. But not everyone got what they wanted… And now some of the Germans from our villages like Neukirchen, Eschlkam, travel to Hyršov and till the fields and meadows which used to be German. Where’s the justice? They go there and buy up and till the fields. The world is upside-down. First they chase people out and now they’re trying to be friends again. The old people are still full of hate, but the young ones are starting friendships.