Margita Antonová

"He came here - but I don't remember the name - that we were going to be deported. He gave my mother some paper, looked around and said he was going to take the cat, that was the last drop for me. And he was looking for something else. The cupboard, that he was going to take it. Just so we'd be ready. And we were already, my mother had this box made because she had been expecting it, 30 kilos we were allowed to take per person. I still have the boxes up in the attic. That next morning we were to come, I don't know now, I think down to the school, that we were going to be deported. My mother got angry, well, angry, she was just scared, she was alone with me and my grandmother, so she ran to Hejnice to the factory. She was working in the weaving factory and while weaving, it was such long rolls, there were certain mistakes, maybe there was a hole or a knot. These were such long needles and the needle had a ball at the end so she could pick it up. It was called embroidery room, they had to clean it [the woven material] all up. Then there was a lady, they had a huge table, and she would pull it across the table and mark with chalk where the mistake was. Then they rolled it up and took it away. None of the people who moved in knew how to do that, because southern Bohemia, it was mostly agriculture, there were no factories. And here, if they made with defects, they couldn't pass it on. And it wasn't just my mother, it was other things. People who were needed stayed here. She announced there that she wasn't coming back, that she had to go to the deportation, and they said, 'Don't worry, you're not going anywhere, we need you here.' They arranged it, and then he had to come give us back the food cards."