„It is interesting, until then there had been no issues with those Germans – those people knew each other for years and lived there together. But the moment Henlein and his party appeared, they naturally started to realize what poor and afflicted people they were. There were occasional clashes with the police by the border, although not as many here as in the North.“
„My parents were falsely accused of playing fraudulent cards. Someone needed our property - so the Gestapo sent my parents to Poland. I don’t know where to, probably Auschwitz, where they murdered them. My husband went through approximately three concentration camps and died in Kaufering in Bavaria. That was a horrible underground camp where everyone died.“
„My dad took me to café Fénix located in the upper part of Wencelas Square. German soldiers sat there in those green uniforms of theirs, stuffing themselves. One had a coffee, a cream and two cakes. It was all placed in front of them; me and my dad facing them. All of a sudden, one of them said: ‚We must leave, I can’t stand seeing this!‘“
„Don’t forget, one came back to find that he had been robbed by the Czech people. I had a couple things hidden at their place which they never returned. It was an unbelievable disappointment. I would have never thought of that happening. When I came to those people who had my parents‘ table and refrigerator – I knew these things belonged to my family – they denied it right in front of me.“
„We went to the border thinking we were going to defend ourselves. What a disappointment that was! I remember well those guys returning from the frontier – they lamented terribly. But to be honest, I have seen no one who would cry, as they say. These guys were returning from blockhouses and shelters. People say that one officer even shot himself.... he didn’t want to capitulate. It was a horrible disappointment.“
Mrs. Věra Vrbová, nee Kohnová, was born on the 15th of May, 1923 at Šumava (Bohemian forest) into a Jewish family. She witnessed the mobilization of September 1938. After the annexation of the Sudetenland, she left for Prague where she prepared herself for university studies. During the occupation, her parents were charged with the organization of fraudulent card games and were sent to a concentration camp in Poland where they died. Mrs. Vrbová was sent to Terezín. Her first husband Borger died in April, 1945 in a concentration camp in Kaufering. She got married again after the war to a man who went through a total of five concentration camps.
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!
