"When I got there, I was lucky to have the second guy in my life. He was our neighbour who knew my dad personally. He was the vice-chairman there. When I told him my problem, the chairman said to me: 'Nobody can take the stamp of being the daughter of a German off you. I still remember how in 1939 we opened the border crossings for the entry of German soldiers.' I replied that in 1939 I had not yet been born, let alone had any concept of nationality issues, and I couldn't be blamed for the fact that I was the daughter of a German. And suddenly our neighbour, the vice-chairman, spoke up. He said to the mayor: "Hey, shut up. Did you know Gabauer?' And he said: 'I didn't.' The vice-mayor said: 'Well, then I'll tell you something about him now. I got a tip-off that the Gestapo was coming to me. I had enough undesirable material to get me into a concentration camp. At night I was burying it in the garden, I look back at the Gabauer house and I see smoke coming out of the window. In the morning, I waited for Mr. Gabauer and begged him not to say anything. And you know what Mr. Gabauer told me: 'Mr. Vavroch, you know very well that Gestapo won’t come to me as I am a German. So, the next time you have an undesirable material, you hide it with me, so you can sleep at night and you don't have to dig up the garden. That's the kind of German he was."
"My mother was very particular about education. When I finished primary school, I applied for a four-year pedagogical school, because there was no institute or faculty of education yet. I did the admission interviews and was not accepted because the daughter of a German cannot teach Czech children. So, I was transferred to the grammar school. I boycotted the grammar school. I thought: "Why, what am I blamed for, why did they transfer me to that grammar school?"
"My father was born in České Budějovice, his parents were German. But according to the reports I have, at that time, when I was not yet alive, half of České Budějovice was German, so I was told by witnesses. Dad was born in České Budějovice, went to Czech schools, graduated from the Czech business academy, was in the Czechoslovak army. When the war with Hitler broke out, he, as a member of German race, had to enlist and was killed in a plane explosion in Holland."
Hermína Malátová, née Gabauerová, was born on 27 March 1942 into a Czech-German family. Although her father, Herman Gabauer, was of German nationality, the family considered itself Czech. They spoke Czech at home, her father graduated from Czech schools and worked in a Czech company. After the outbreak of the war, his father had to enlist in the German army as a German citizen. In 1944, he died in a plane explosion in Holland. After the war, the whole part of her father‘s family was deported. The witness never met her paternal grandparents again. Hermína Malátová had problems getting into the pedagogical school because of her father‘s German nationality. The management of the pedagogical school did not agree that the daughter of a German could teach Czech children. She graduated from the Faculty of Education after working for two years at the Roma orphanage in Dobrá Voda in Záblatí near Prachatice, which was run by Miroslav Dědič, a prominent Czech social educator. After completing her university studies, she worked as a teacher and later as a principal at several primary schools in České Budějovice and its surroundings. In 2022 she lived in the village of Zahrádka near Chabičovice.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
