Antonie Kechrtová

“Immediately after my sister came to Malin, Germans started to chase all the villagers. Therefore, she didn’t meet our parents. I know the place she had perished because one of her schoolmates, Míla Cinková, who survived, saw her. Germans gathered them in front of a barn. Čínková tried to persuade Mary to escape, but she was too afraid to try. Čínková hid in a hedgerow. There she waited until the morning. When she heard someone speaking Czech she came out. Can you imagine what she had passed through? Germans had put Mary and many others in the barn. Then they had massacred them and had set the barn aflame. Only one girl had survived. She had entered the barn among the first. The walls of the barn had been made from wood, but the foundations had been build form bricks. The barn was old so she had tried to grub the bricks. She had made a hole and had escaped covered in smoke. She had run across the garden into a wheat field. There she had found a safe haven.”

“My mother was burned to death in a village called Ukrajinský Malín. They were driven into a barn and there we found her. My mother had golden teeth so I recognized her. She was lying with her face turned up. Under her chest her clothes had endured the flames. She was wearing two shirts and two sweaters despite that it was hot and mid-summer. It was clear she had prepared for a long journey. They probably had thought the Germans would transport them far away.”

“We made a stop in a nearby village Ostrozec and stayed at house of family Jon. They told us: ‘We don’t know what is happening in Malin. Nobody from Malin had appeared, there is shooting going on, and houses are in flames.” Then a thunderstorm came. It was raining until 11 p.m. We continued to village Kneruty and stayed there over night. Men left horses behind and set out on foot for Malin to realize what was going on. As they were approaching the village there was a strange silence. They entered Malin from an end where the house of my uncle stood. His house endured the burning unlike mine. We had a nice house made of stone. It was destroyed and burned down. Men had been waiting silent in uncle’s house. They were afraid to proceed further. They thought Germans were still in the village.”

“My father was put in a large room of a school with other men. Men were sitting in school benches. Suddenly the door opened and soldiers threw grenades inside. When men saw what was happening they started to jump out of windows into a school garden. There I found my father. He had to be shot to death in the garden only because he was able to jump out of the window. He was badly wounded. Mr. Uhlir, who survived, got three bullets in his leg. As they were fleeing from the school, Germans were shooting at them and everybody fell somewhere. Uhlir told us he heard a lot of screaming, and everybody was wounded. Germans then checked if someone was still alive and shot him: ‘my leg was covered in blood, but I kept my mouth shut, and didn't move the slightest. If they had realized I was still alive they would have shot me to death.’”