Aloisie Víchová

“Some prisoners got evacuated. And in Hodonín were two bridges, iron overpasses. In Mutěnka and in armature and brick factory. For Mutěnice you had to change in Hodonín as we could not go to Břeclav. The roads were closed all the way to Zaječí. Water was drained to locomotives, those were steam locomotives. There was a special pump under the bridge, you could turn it and drain the water right into the locomotive. So they had to stop the transport in Hodonín. It was cold, freezing to bits and I saw… those prisoners in open wagons , some of them had the stripy hat up on their head, some of them had none, just shaven heads and they were staring at us up on the bridge and we stared back, and I will never forget those eyes. Poor, painful and probably thirsty. As there were bars in the wagons, they were licking them. And I had bread in my bag, that I threw them and imagine they were guarding it and my mum cried at me back home: ‚If they had seen you, they would have shot you dead.‘ And I replied: ‚Mum, they were thirsty…‘ Well a kid of thirteen years did not figure that I could not do such a thing. And they were beating them with their gun-stocks… when I saw them standing, as they did not give any water to the prisoners, I was totally flabbergasted. Some wagons were covered, some had no roof. As I said, I will never forget those eyes.”

“And you know, why Hodonín got bombed? Not really for the objects, there was nothing produced there, what would help the partisans. There is a sugar refinery and chocolate and such… My husband used to be in the guarding house related to the railways. And on 20 November, 1944 a train stopped there. They went on moving to the front. And the Germans as they saw the English plains above [royal air force], they began shooting at them using machine guns. Well they probably saw the clouds… flying high up. They were flying and as they began shooting they moved into a kind of a cross, my mum was watching that apparently, and as they were flying into the cross they threw it down. Nothing got destroyed, only the chocolate factory and the sugar refinery surroundings and civic houses. Many civilians died there. And I do remember the bombing as in the school… we were left out as the sirens went on. And me being curious, instead of catching a train, I went to have a look… but when it began to explode, I was just at the refinery and it was the worst there. And as I got to… you know there was a Jewish cemetery and behind the wall four of us were hiding. At five there was a guard driving by and shouting: ‚Anybody alive? Is there anyone?‘ So we got up and crawled up on the carriage. I was black and my clothes were in pieces, they drove me at five in the evening. It felt to me like a train coming above our head, there was a terrible sound. But they were throwing time bombs too, that kept blasting all the time.”