Antonie Málková

“Terezín needs help. And so I applied. We were about four young girls, but young guys went, too, and so there were about twelve of us who went there, but eventually only four of us remained. Only after you arrived you were able to see all the horror. They brought us to the Sudeten barracks and in the yard there was a pile of furniture which had been taken from the offices, and the rooms were now used for patients. There were already medical workers from the Bulovka hospital, and their head nurse already began organizing the work somewhat. She told me: ´You will take care of this room.´ I said: ´But I still don’t know very much.´ – ´But you know something already, and you attend a school.´ There were fifteen people lying on both sides of that room, all on the ground, of course. There was not a single drop of water, nothing, and no toilet. The toilets were covered with shit all over, if you pardon me. People were hungry and suffering from diarrhea, because they ate whatever they could find. They were standing by the wall and pleading for Abort (toilet). At first I went to that pile of rubbish and I found a big iron pot, and I placed it to the room where there were thirty people, all men and all suffering from fever. Polish, French, Czechs. So I gave them the pot so that they could at least use it at night. The pot was quite big. The stool of typhoid patients ferments terribly, and every morning I thus asked one of the men who were able to help to help me carry it. You know, I took one handle, and the pot was full of shit, and all this stuff was flowing over my hands. There was no water, and no disinfection, either. But at least they had that pot to use when they needed. There were toilets in the barracks, but they were inadequate for so many people. I was in charge of only one room, but there were was a great number of rooms. There were already some doctors, mainly from the Bulovka hospital, and later the guys at least brought us some water before water delivery was organized. During one week water was brought in, together with quicklime, which we used as a doormat to disinfect our feet.”

“People began coming there to look for their relatives and friends, and this was another disaster, because those poor souls were hungry and they started feeding them. But they suffered from typhoid; I don’t know how much you know about medicine, but typhoid patients have ulcers in their intestines which then burst and cause peritoneum infections. The relatives were giving them meat, steaks, or pea soup. ´For God’s sake, you must not give them this.´ – ´But he is so hungry.´ People were dying again. I know that they meant it well, but many people have died as a result.”

“I was thinking that I would lie down and rest. There was Sister Dolores, who was in charge of the dormitory, and another sister, who cooked. There were only three of them, the sisters. We were no longer children and we could understand what was happening. As soon as I lay down, Sister Dolores came to the room and said: ´Charita asked for help, there is a transport train, which was at the train station at night and now is waiting near Votice and calling for help. They are asking for somebody to come there, there are hungry people.´ I was wearing my white coat and the nurse’s hat; I didn’t even change and I said: ´Well, I will go.´ Another girl, I no longer remember which one, said that she would go, too. We walked towards Charita, which had its headquarters in the Sněmovní Street, that’s where the chamber of deputies is now. I went there because they had all the information about the situation. As soon as I passed through the Spálená Street and got to Národní, there were people, men and boys, riding trams and waving Czech flags. I thought, this is weird, it’s finally come, and it will be tough. And it was. Together with some boys I disarmed Germans who were driving a truck: we jumped on them, one guy pulled him back from the steering wheel, and the two others and I undressed them and disarmed them. The Germans were assembling somewhere in Smíchov, and they were driving away from there. But these soldiers were shaking and they obeyed, when we – and I as a girl – disarmed them, because the boys who were with me were quite rough with them.”

“They were already bringing there German women from Litoměřice to do the cleaning jobs. You know, a German woman was an important person at that time, a lady, and they ordered her to clean the toilets and wash the corridors where people had vomited. Well, this was cruel from our people. But I was angry at her, too, but not so much that I would... Well, this German woman said that she would not do it, and she sat down on that pile of furniture and that guy shot her from a short distance. Our guy. It was terrible, but I am in no position to judge him or her. People have had to endure a lot, and the Germans have taken no pity on them.”