Erika Herudková

“I remember the Katyusha and bombers. Up until today I hear those airplanes and get goosebumps. My mum held my hand when we looked out of the attic window and saw everything on fire. It was God’s terror. It began on Sunday morning but the first Russian soldiers only appeared on Tuesday at daybreak. The shooting lasted for so long. Our soldiers were Germans. Think of it what you will but they were our fathers, brothers and sons. They were in Hrabyně while the 4th Ukrainian Front was in a pheasantry behind the railway station.”

“Already in WW I hundred and one men from our village were killed in action. In WW II the figure was two hundred and six. My mother was left alone with three children. By the end of the war I was six years old and I was still the eldest. Our neighbor had four children, the eldest son being ten. All around people had two or three children. And we were left penniless. We didn’t get any support at all because our dads were German soldiers.”