"Mrs. Červená, the mother of Sonia Červená, was also in the Ravensbrück camp. I don´t know why or for what reason. She spoke German perfectly and was already quite popular in the camp. At some point she was also working there as the block official in Strafblock (Strafblock =something like the punishment section in the camp - translator’s note). There were people who got in trouble, for an example, if they didn´t work hard or they just couldn´t catch on to the tasks. In her position as block official, she had quite an influence. She was also longer in the camp than we were and sometimes she came to see us in our block house when we were still in block no. 11. She would give us advice about what to do or not do. Me and Milka Zbrojková went to see her one day and told her that our mothers had been selected for transportation. We asked her if there was anything she could do for them. Mrs. Červená withdrew them both from the transportation and replaced them with two other names. She saved my mom and Mrs. Zbrojková by doing that."
"We used to gather mainly at the lower part of the village, where I always went down the hill. We also met often by the Horák´s farmstead. A beautiful old lime tree used to grow there. Later on, when we were fourteen or fifteen years old, we always met there in the evening after our home duties were done - we had to feed the geese. Once we got to our place we sang songs together, during the summer times of course. What a nights those were! It didn´t matter from which part of the village we were, we just sat all together and sang."
"We could never be sure about what to look like during the lineup, whether you should pretend you were old or young. Sometimes they chose young people and sent them to another place and sometimes they chose elderly people to be sent to their death. During one of the line ups, they chose my mom and another woman from Lidice, Mrs. Zbrojková (mom of Mrs. Vachterová). Both were selected for transportation to a death camp, and since only elderly women were chosen that day, it was obvious that they were supposed to be liquidated."
"In March 1939, part of the German army was accommodated in Lidice as part of a regulation to provide accommodation for at least one soldier. The mayor of Lidice was in charge of this regulation and its arrangement according to the possibilities within each family home. For an example, we used to have a house with two rooms - a kitchen and another large room, a sort of living room. We also had an attic and a basement. The soldier who was assigned to us was named Helmut and he was a young boy. I remember fighting with this boy all the time."
"Who would blame the mothers for crying when they were taking their kids away from them at the gymnasium gym in Kladno? We were all crying because we knew the kids too, especially those from our part of the village. We even knew them by name. We were always sorry for them, in deed, but it was only then when we came back and when my son Lubor was born and I could hold him in my arms, was I thinking... Oh, my God...what a tragedy when the mother was forced to give up her child. When the child was holding her tight and screaming: ´Don’t let go of me, Mommy, I don´t want to leave you...´The Germans would fire at the ceiling as a warning, their dogs were barking...it must have been a disaster for the mothers. It is terrible when a child dies, of course, but in this case they told the mothers of infants that they could stay with their babies, but in fact, they only left them there until the very next day and then took their babies away. Just to think about it...where is the child, what if he´s hungry? Does he have a clean diaper, does he needs this or that...it must have been something terrible."
We got on the train and one part of our lifes ended at that very moment.
Milada Cábová
photo: Archiv pamětnice a současné foto V. Faltýnek
photo: Archiv pamětnice a současné foto V. Faltýnek
Download image
Mrs. Milada Cábová, by maiden name Říhová, was born on March 1, 1924 in Lidice. The Říhas raised two daughters, Milada and her sister Věra who was ten years older and from a previous marriage (the first husband died in WWI). The Říha family lived in house number 89 in Lidice. Milada attended the first five grades of the local grammar school. After that she attended school in nearby Buštěhrad. After the eight mandatory years of school, she attended the ninth paid grade and then went to Buštěhrad to study with a local dressmaker. She wasn’t able to complete her studies however because in June 1942, she was captured and subsequently transported along with the others to the Kladno town Gymnasium and from there, transported straight to Ravensbruck forced-labor camp in Germany. She and her mom lived in tough conditions there throughout the war. The SS, who were afraid of the upcoming end of the war, tried to get rid of all of the forced-labor camp victims. As a result, Milada and the rest of the women from Lidice were sent on the Schwerin March. The women’s procession never made it to Schwerin, however. The guards were so afraid of the Red Army soldiers and the approaching front that they abandoned the women. The women finally arrived to Crivitz, where they met Czech men who were marching from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Both groups settled down at the end of the war in a forest camp. They were liberated by the Red army on May 2nd 1945. Antonín Zápotocký, who was among the men from Sachsenhausen, began immediate negotiatations with the Russians. He arranged the transportation of the Lidice women to Neubrandenburg and from there to Kladno. Only at the Czechoslovak border were they told by soldiers about the Lidice village destruction. Milada and her mom then traveled from Kladno to nearby Stehelčeves where her sister and brother in law lived. After two days, Milada´s fiancé, František Cába, came to visit her. He had waited for Milada the entire three years and had regularly sent her packages to Ravensbruck camp. All of the Lidice women were given a flat from the Kladno town managers. Milada and her mom lived in one of these flats until her fiancé got a flat in Prague. In the meantime, Milada married František in August, 1945. Their son Lubor was born in August, 1946 and four years later, their daughter was born. Milada started to work at Ruzyně Airport in 1961. At first, she was hired as a flight clerk and later she joined the passport/custom department where she was responsible for visas and the exit clause for the flight staff. At the same time she also completed her education at evening school and passed the graduation exams. She presently lives in Lidice.
