Horst Adler

“It was not easy. For me, however, it was interesting to see the place where I was born and where I spent the first years of my life. For my parents and grandparents it was a strong internal need to go where they had spent the first decades of their lives, where they had lived and worked. And it was a really huge disappointment when they saw their houses or the neighbour’s house abandoned to ruin or demolished and there was nothing left. This hurt a lot. What was even worse was when people saw the destroyed churches and graveyards. One is bound by strong memories to places where you were baptised, married or went to the first communion. Or if you go to a graveyard and you know that under this heap of debris your own parents or grandparents are buried, that the place is completely derelict, is used as a dump, as it was in Dolní Paseky. There was a farm by the graveyard and the pigs and the cattle settled in the graveyard and grazed among the last remaining tombstones. This was a great disappointment for people.”

“It was a big surprise when we came to Aš again. People still remembered what the town looked like when they were leaving it. They had this picture on their minds and the reality when they arrived… well, it was very interesting. Much had been destroyed, there were ruins everywhere. During the long reign of the communist regime the town was plundered, some parts of it were quite demolished. It was dreadful to look at. Derelict and unkept houses all around. Today the town looks quite different. The ruins were cleared and where there were factories is now green.”