Emilie Marková

* 1922

Veterán z 2. světové války, východní fronta, Národnostní menšiny, Volyňští Češi
Vypuknutí 2. světové války, Karpatsko-Dukelská operace, Osvobozování Československa, Operace Barbarossa - napadení SSSR Německem
  • 1
    Přehrát
    Pozastavit

    the genocide of the Jewish population of Volhynia

    (audio)
    délka: 02:52
    Download file
    Info

    “There were Ghettos even where we lived. I can’t even speak about it. I didn’t see them personally but I heard the rumors. The young lads got everywhere and then they were telling their stories. The Jews had to dig their own graves, get undressed, line up in front of the pits and then they were mowed down by machine-gun fire. The Germans then covered the bodies with a thin layer of chlorine lime and the next round of killing followed. Like the sheep… All of this was happening just some four kilometers away from the airport that we were building. But I don’t remember anymore when it was exactly. The graves were partially buried with soil – there were limbs sticking out from the earth… when we went to the army they kept showing the open graves to us. I don’t really know why, probably to harden our hearts.”

  • 2
    Přehrát
    Pozastavit

    settling in Czechoslovakia

    (audio)
    délka: 01:09
    Download file
    Info

    “Did you return to the Soviet Union after the war or did you stay here?” “I stayed in Czechoslovakia. However, I went to a visit to the USSR when I got a six-week leave in July. It was much worse there then it was in Czechoslovakia. The level of culture was much lower there. I’ve never gone there afterwards. I only visited the site of the Dukla battle three times and I’d love to go again but I’m not capable of it anymore.”

  • 3
    Přehrát
    Pozastavit

    the grave social situation of the family

    (audio)
    délka: 00:47
    Download file
    Info

    “It wasn’t easy for us. We were surrounded by trenches already in the first war. My mother had to work hard to feed the family because my father had to go to war. At this time my parents already had four children and, on top of it, my grandparents lived with them! So you see, my mother had a lot of hungry mouths to feed but few hands to help her.”

  • 4
    Přehrát
    Pozastavit

    the fifties

    (audio)
    délka: 01:00
    Download file
    Info

    “I’m rather the kind of a person who prefers to back down in time, so I didn’t have any problems. In addition to that I worked in the hops-house where you had to work hard manually. No one envied my job so I didn’t get into trouble with anybody.”

  • 5
    Přehrát
    Pozastavit

    shelling in 1939

    (audio)
    délka: 01:03
    Download file
    Info

    “The war came in 1939. The country was divided into two parts. The part we lived in was managed by the Russians. The Poles were fleeing because they were completely unprepared for this. The Germans were bombing the villages and the fugitives. I was just learning how to sow when a bomb exploded nearby. We were completely unprepared for this. I had my finger underneath the machine at the moment the bomb exploded and got such a shock that I pierced it. I still have a little scar here. Then in 1941 came the Germans.”

  • 6
    Přehrát
    Pozastavit

    spare time at the front

    (audio)
    délka: 01:17
    Download file
    Info

    “Did you have some spare time to have some fun at the battlefront?” “There was no time for any organized life but yes, everyone needs to take some time off every once in a while. You needed to take some time for yourself to relax and rest. We chatted and we laughed just like any other young people do. When you’re young you don’t allow yourself to admit that something might happen to you. Only when you get older you stop and think for a moment and then you say to yourself: “how in the world could I have survived all of this?”.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    neznámo, 14.10.2008

    (audio)
    délka: 27:15
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
    Download file
    Info
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

Boys as well as girls went to the army, so I went along

Emilie Marková was born in the village of Straklov in Volhynia in 1922. She comes from a family of Volhynian Czechs. Her grandparents came to Volhynia in the sixties of the 19. century. She attended a Polish school but Czech lessons were part of her education at this school. Her family had eight children in total, two of them died, however, shortly after their birth. Mrs. Emílie remembers the grave social situation of her family. In 1939 World War II started with a German surprise attack on unprepared Poland which shortly thereafter surrendered and was parceled between Germany and Russia. All of Volhynia was ceded to the Soviet Union again. In 1940 Mrs. Marková started to work in the office of the grain storehouse which received the requisite grain deliveries from the peasants. In 1941 the region was occupied by the Germans. After the liberation of the region by the Soviets, Mrs. Marková joined the 1st Czechoslovak army corps. She was assigned to the telephone company as an accountant. She was also charged with the management of the supply of the troops. She witnessed the heavy battles at Dukla where her brother fell. After the end of the war she stayed in Czechoslovakia.

Zobrazit celý příběh pamětníka (česky)
Fotografie (0)
Odkazy (0)