Annemarie Goschala

It was my fifth year in school when the upheaval happened. So we had to quit, anyway there were so many air raid warnings, we were more often in the cellar than in school (laughs). Well, and then the Czechs came, so we Germans had to leave … had – we rather should. But they didn’t let go of my father, he was in a factory, he had to show Czech workers how it is done. Well, they threw us out of our house, so we sent for our father, but they didn’t let him go. The robbed everything inside the house, after that we had to, could move back in. Well, we were not allowed to attend school in 1945. So we had to … two years we were at home. And then we had to go to a Czech school and didn’t understand a word. We didn’t know anything (laughs). We were like … I also couldn’t … I could do calculations, because the numbers were the same, but writing or understanding …

I can tell you – that took a while. I was working in the shop at that time. Wenn we sold something, when I was there and a customer came – we sold all sorts of things, no matter what – and some things I didn’t understand. So I went outside, to the back, where we had our storage room, and when I came back, I said: “Nemáme!” [“We don’t have that!”] If my boss would have heard that, he would have been really angry with me! (laughs). Because there was, you know the daughter of Ms. Steska. We always went, because she also went to school in Vernéřov, down together. She spoke a little German, not much … but still. And we always went home together from school, and she always said: “I have to wash nádobí [dishes]!” And I came home and told my mother: “Listen, mother, the Steskas wash their furniture every day!” She said: “No way, they are not that clean.” Instead of nádobí [dishes] I understood nábytek [furniture] … you know. Back then I mixed up everything. I always told my mother: “They wash every day, we only on Saturday evening, they wash them every day.” (laughs) Well, little by little, because for two years, while I was doing my apprenticeship in the shop, I attend school, well, I could speak it a little …