Rudolf Paulik

I also think it was bad when they were loading us, they drove us to the station and the people who stood outside spat on us and threatened us with their fists… That was bad. Getting safe inside those wagons, that was good.

Delousing! Of course. However long the transport took, in Furth everyone had to get out and there were these special buildings where they deloused everyone. When you walked out, everything was all white. Whenever I travel today, it doesn’t matter which part of Germany I’m going to when I talk to certain people and say I was in Furth, they’ll reply: Oh, we were resettled through Furth im Wald and to this day we can remember coming out white as snow from that delousing chamber.

The expulsion, I can tell you straight away, I’ll never forgive the Czechs for that. Because that was beyond words. When I had to watch all the things that were done to people, just because they were Germans, that wasn’t right. But we can’t turn back history today. It’s clear the Germans were responsible for much worse, nobody wants to deny that either. That’s just how it was. But the Germans have apologised again and again and the Germans, where possible, paid their debts. But nobody else thinks they should apologise? Not to mention any kind of reparations. It’s high time, I’d say for us to work together and try to make an effort to prosper. What I think is important is that our young people, both Czech and German, that their future is ensured and that we can get along together.

Shortly before the date of the expulsion we received a note in the post and at the top it said we should be ready in two or three days and what we were allowed to take with us, among other things I think it was 1000 Reichsmarks and 30 kg of luggage. But that luggage, I have to say it varied. Some were allowed to take 40 kg, so I’ve heard. But I can’t confirm if that’s true. And then on that date we had to be at the place at eight in the morning, they loaded us onto a lorry, took us by lorry to Prachatice and then we went to the camp. More misery was waiting for us there. We didn’t have suitcases or any such thing, all our possessions were wrapped up in sheets of linen. Of course we weren’t carrying any junk, just quality items and things you needed every day. At the camp they cut up the linen and the Czechs took whatever they wanted. That was more than miserable. If someone’s already lying on the ground, you don’t step on them.