Terezie Sedlačíková

“The soldiers came and started to load up. My mom was sitting in the yard and crying. She didn’t want to leave. My brother was very upset, he tried to drive them out, he didn’t want them to be there. He gave them a fight but it was useless eventually. They loaded us up and took us to Dětřichov. It took three days. Such a short ride.”

“In the times of the Third Reich my mom once stayed after the service in the church and sung a Czech song. Somebody reported it and she had to appear at the municipal authority where they tried to persuade her to never do this again as it could harm her. In the times of the Reich, it was only allowed to sing in German in the church.”

“How did your typical Christmas look like? How did you celebrate? What did you eat?” “Well, my mom baked some plums, made the Christmas cake at Christmas Eve – it wasn’t that much. We had a roasted goose for Christmas, which was pretty fancy. But Christmas Eve itself was much more modest – we only had the cake and some fruits and that was it. We were fasting on Christmas Eve – we just had something in the evening. On midnight, we would go outside and attend the midnight mass. My brother was a musician and played in an ensemble. They would play outside in the streets. They walked around the village and played songs and carols.”

Croatian Church song

“We had a cellar that was located right on the border. The rectory accommodated German women whose husbands were in the war. My mom knew them. They begged her to let them hide in our cellar. They had little babies. My mom took them to the cellar. The problem with the cellar was that it was located right at the border which was exposed to a lot of gunfire. The Russians came and searched the cellar. I have no idea whom they were searching for. The cellar was packed with women and children. Then came the Germans. It was changing all the time. I don’t remember anymore how many days we spent there. The battle raged for two weeks in this theatre of war at the border. Once, a neighbor who milked our cows and was bringing us some food, came to our cellar across the battleground. Our cellar was separate but our cousin had a cellar in another area. There were several cellars in that area and people were actually gathering there when it got a bit calmer. There were times at which there was gunfire and times which were quiet. My mom said that if nothing had happened to that neighbor when he was crossing the battlefield, we could cross it as well and hide at her cousin’s cellar. My mom packed two huge loafs of bread that a baker made for her on her back and we walked across the battleground to the other cellars.”