Elfriede Weismann

* 1935

  • "It doesn't matter which side you're on. Your homeland is your homeland. It is the most important thing for every person - his roots. I always pray in the name of St. Mary Major for the generations, who come after us, to value their homelands as much as we do. That just can't be ignored. A tree without roots cannot stand, it has no support and falls down. A man is just like a tree - he also needs his roots. And that's important, that's very important. And every boy or girl has a duty to do something for world peace. Everyone can start with themselves. You can say to yourself: World peace begins with me, and then it is the turn of the others. One must set a good example. Sometimes it's not easy at all, but if you try, even small steps are great. To share contentment and friendship. To live a good life.“

  • "And today I am happy. And I must say, with getting older, I appreciate my country more and more. And whenever I'm sick or not feeling well, I get in a car and go to Šumava all by myself. I go there to get rid of the suffering I feel inside, and then I return home happy. And thank God, thank God my feelings have changed again. Thank God I live well. Few years ago, I was invited to the grammar school of Kaplice. There were many students. I told them about my life, about the expulsion, and what it was like when we came to Linz. Linz was just rubble and ashes lay on it. Everything was destroyed, bombed. We all had to help to build it again."

  • "I didn't understand why we had to leave. Just because we were Germans? We didn't do anything. That it's about nationality, yes, that's a different matter, but as a child you don't understand. And I must say, I was very ... Yes, I felt hatred for the Czechs when I was in Linz. Because ... - why did we have to leave home? Why weren't we allowed to take anything with us? Why did they take everything from us?”

  • Celé nahrávky
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    České Budějovice, 20.08.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 01:49:21
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu  Stories of the Czech-Austrian Borderland KPF-01-210
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A tree without roots cannot stand and falls down. A man is just like a tree – he needs his roots.

Elfriede Weismann in Kaplice, 1930s
Elfriede Weismann in Kaplice, 1930s
zdroj: Archiv pamětníka

Elfriede Weismann was born on 18 December 1935 in Kaplice in South Bohemia. Both of her parents were of German nationality. Her father, Friedrich Reich, completed compulsory military service with the Czechoslovak army during the First Republic, and in the autumn of 1938 he took part in the mobilization. After Munich Agreement, Kaplice became part of the German Empire, and her father had to enlist in the Wehrmacht. Elfriede lived through World War II with her mother and three younger siblings in Kaplice. On 7 November 1945, they were forced to leave for Linz in Austria, where they later reunited with their father and began a new life. Elfriede trained as a hairdresser. She got married in 1955 and together with her husband they raised three children. Elfriede became involved in associations of expelled Czech Germans. In 1968, she visited her birthplace for the first time in twenty-three years. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, she regularly returned to her homeland. She pushed for creation of the memorial to the victims of expulsion in the cemetery in her native Kaplice. In 2020, Elfriede Weismann lived in Linz, Austria. She regularly met with the last living natives of Kaplice.