Elfriede Hannawald

"My older sister Lotte and older brother Ernsti went to school. I understood, so I understood, that he was in some group called HJ. He had a belt and he kept polishing goat milk so that it would be all shiny, and he used soda on the buckle. He always wore a shirt, sort of army style, and trousers too, and he often used to go somewhere away. In the evenings, I often heard that he came home and sister always said Do you need to go there? They often argued in the middle of the night, it was very loud but I did not know what the group was."

"We had two cousins, Ernstel and Franzi. With my little brother Albert, we were always together. When we were hungry, we went to mom and said 'Mom, give us bread', it was bread with jam that the mothers made themselves. And then we went to a little stream where many trouts were. There was a small bridge, too. The bridge was wide and we always went around barefoot, we had no shoes. I used to catch trouts with my bare hands. So did my brother Albert. And then, I saw a gun under the bridge. In a leather holster. I love water so I jumped in and fished out the revolver out of the stream and climbed out. Then Ernstel said: 'Give me the revolver.' No, I wanted to throw it away because our dad always said: 'Never touch any ammunition, never take it away.' But the boys wanted to see it, they took it out of the holster which was totally soaked. My brother told me, 'Elfriede, go aside, let me there, I want to see it and I'm going to take it.' Then the little Franzi, he was four, said: 'Throw it away, what did the parents say? To throw any ammunition away.' Suddenly, there was a shoot, Ernstl shot his brother Franzi. He fell on the bridge, there was blood everywhere, we ran home, it was not far. My dad came and slapped us: 'Go home now!' and mom called, 'Dad, grab a blanket!' Then they wrapped little Franz and carried him to Aunt Berta's. She was not at home so dad kicked the door open and put the little boy on the sofa. Then he found his sister who was nearby and told her: 'Berta, come home, something terrible happened. Your son is not among us any more.' It was horrible. And that's what I remember."

"Yes, Petříček lived at that house. He would often come to play with my brother. He was always nicely dressed, nicer than us. He was an only son. We had no toys so our Dad took an old tire and a stick and we poked the tire with the stick. Now, Petříček wanted this tire. He told his mother and she said that he wants the tire. My dad had told us: "Children, when the Czechs want something, you must give it to them. Only that way there'll be peace.' The the woman said that I should bring the tire. I said, 'No.' Then she went to our place, when the tire was in front of the house door, so she went in our flat, she had the Czech uniform and she had a gun, too. I knew what was coming so I jumped behind the corner of the house. The bullet missed me, I only heard its impact. Then I ran away. I hid in the woods. I did not dare to go in the house. They could have shot me. I was hiding in the woods and only after the sunset, I returned home."