Marie Zubíková, roz. Lukšová

“In Pustiny there was a certain baker Swarowsky and his wife was Czech. They had two boys, Helmut and Herbert. The boys were quite good, up to a certain moment. Herbert was terribly smart and a good boy too. Granny liked him a lot. It was all fine until Henlein. They used to go to Hirschberg (todays Jelenia Góra in Poland – author´s note) and were taught, how Germans should treat Czechs there. Imagine, that the boys were so manipulated that they accused their own mother of being Czech. They were seventeen or eighteen years old. And their sister was over twenty, she was married and lived elsewhere. They began to accuse their mother… and she hanged herself then. At the stable Mrs. Swarowská hanged herself. Then the Germans made in Příchovice all the way to the cemetery, where they buried her. Her coffin was in the church on display. And now the há-jóts came (Hitlerjugend members – author´s note) and marched to the coffin. And the priest, what was his name? Nevermind, well he chucked them out of the church. He told them, I don’t remember now, he was not originally Czech, though he came from here, but was German, of a small figure. He told them, the place was of god and it was only in purpose of holy masses and no politics belong there. And off they went! I wonder he was not arrested or somehow… He was such a discreet man, Kolman was his name, and his grave is there too. Well and those were the boys, who used to play with us and then got totally manipulated and we were not good anymore: ‚Got off them!‘ I tell you something, it was all mostly due to the young people, who grew up with Nazism. Politics never mattered much to the older ones, at least those living in the mountains. They only care to eat and…”

“They were solid people, the Germans, very decent. I was lucky enough to get in touch with intelligent people. Although they were both…. They were two bosses, brothers, although they were both members of the party (probably SdP – author´s note.). But why? They had a factory in Radčice. There is a factory, which is still standing; they produce something else nowadays. The firm Jakob (back then – author´s note). They used to make men´s suit cloths. Yet really nice ones. The bosses were at the party, as if they were not, then they´d not be making any woollen cloths but uniforms and army covers. And they´d have to fire many people. Well so they joined the party. But I never experienced, that if I came back from lunch and met them, they never greeted me Heil Hitler, not once. Not even employees. Guten Tag, just have a good day, in a normal fashion. They were really intelligent people. That´s how it was. It is all in the people. The biggest dorks did all the big hassle. These were intelligent people. They knew well it is all wrong, but what else could they have done, when they didn’t want to see the factory closed and people fired!”