Marie Malá

“The war, as far as I know, affected almost all families. I managed to see some documents where the dead were shortlisted. And I think that there was one from each house but also two or three. There were many children there. But far the worst was when two sons and on top of that their father fell, which was just the case from Paště. You can imagine how much they hated the war. Those were entirely ordinary people. I think if they had the chance to kill Hitler they would definitely do it. It was not everywhere the same, it’s obvious. But they knew only hard toil out there in the hills. So those, if they could liquidate it all, they would definitely do it.”

“The death march was passing by that place. Those were Jewish women who were saved from the gas rooms but the Fascists needed to get rid of the eye-witnesses and therefore they dragged them under terrible conditions through the land. They were probably heading to Volary. There are their graves in the cemetery. There are only headstones at some places such as at Hartmanice, in the Jewish cemetery or in Rejnštejn about a kilometre behind the cemetery. Eleven women died there but nobody knows where exactly they are buried. There are only headstones there. It was in April 1945. They also went through Svojší, they were probably just on their way to Volary. They put them up in the fire house. I remember hearing them crying. But nobody could get inside because they were locked in. My granny wanted to take some food to them but unfortunately... I clearly remember their lament. Those are horrible memories.”

“There was probably no work down in Přední Paště so my granny and mum went to do something up to Krankbauerhof. It’s in Babylon direction. It was the time of ripe cherries. My mum was up in the cherry tree and threw the cherries down to me. And I can see it really as if it happened only yesterday that there was a postman in a black cloak coming. He shouted at my mum that there was an important letter for my granny. Mum went down, she looked at that... And it was a telegram that my granny’s son fell in the war. And I remember the picture, when they took his photo out, where the mass grave was. It was somewhere in the East front. It was a grave in such a field, there were maybe two hundred wooden crosses with names of those who fell.”

“It was towards the end of the war, there were crowds of war prisoners passing by. They were being dragged somewhere up the hill to Bučina. There was supposed to be a prison working camp. Those were Russian soldiers but soldiers of other nationalities as well. There was a trough with water in the village square. And my granny went out one day, she poured some water in a bucket and because she lost two her sons in the war she wanted to give them some water. However, she was knocked down to the ground even with the bucket of water. Those were cruel and sad moments because many soldiers, no matter what nationality... many of them died of exhaustion on their way and some of them were even shot dead.”