We stood at the rails waving goodbye
Download image
Věra Chromcová was born on 17 February 1936 in Česká Ves (German Böhmischdorf) as the youngest of three children of Josef and Sofie Chromcovi. While her mother belonged to the German natives, her father was of Czech origin coming from Litovel. Sometime in 1938 the family left Česká Ves and moved to a rental in Olomouc. Věra Chromcová was not certain but thinks that the reason was the father´s rectruitment to army during general mobilisation for the state defence on 23 September, 1938. A year later the family came back to Česká Ves. During WW2 a cousin of the witness, Rudolf Borke, joined the Wehrmacht, who fell during war. Uncle Rudolf Pohl spent several years in the Soviet prisoner camps. From the period of WW2, Věra Chromcová remembers Soviet prisoners from the camp in Česká Ves and also the bombing of the village on 12 December, 1944, during which two people died. All the mother´s relatives ended up in Bavaria after the war. In May 1948 also the brother Alfréd secretly crossed the borders to Germany and the family has not seen him for long sisteen years. Since the year 1946 the witness has lived in Jeseník.
