Gabriela Binková

“Máňa received a telegram to go home, because her dad was in hospital and he was very sick. But they didn’t allow her to go. Two weeks later she received another telegram. We were getting one day off in order to have time to wash our clothes. I was not at work that day, I was doing the washing. The girls from the kitchen called me that there was a telegram for Máňa, and they gave it to me. I gave it to the woman, and she immediately called to the factory and asked them to let Máňa go home immediately, because her father’s condition was serious. They let her go home and she left. She arrived home and her dad was already dead. She went straight to the hospital and her dad was already dead, and she was thus not able to speak to him anymore. She got upset, and therefore she didn’t go back to Germany. Since she has not returned there within a week, they imprisoned her. SS men imprisoned her and she spent two months in prison.”

“I was already dating my husband at that time and we wanted to marry. My husband’s sister kept urging me that we ought to marry so that I would not have to go to Germany. She thought that when I became married, I would not have to go to Germany. When Laďa’s cousin’s parents learnt about it, they quickly married her off. However, his cousin was married for less than two months when she received the notice to go to Germany. She said that she would go. When the girls came for her to go to the railway station together, she told them that she would be right back. She went outside and she hanged herself. She had been married for two months and she hanged herself. Laďa’s sister came to us and told us that we did not need to marry, that Mařenka had hanged herself. That even though her parents quickly married her off, it was of no use. We thus didn’t marry with Laďa. I told him: ‘You can stay single, I will be single, and we will meet afterwards. You will be free to do whatever you want. And I will stay single as well, we will both be single.’ We eventually did not marry each other. Mařenka did marry, and it didn’t help her either. There was the order to go, and nothing could be done about it.”