Markéta Formanová

* 1937

  • "It was towards the end of the war, after Ivan was gone, and then there were apparently groups that looted. It was towards autumn, my parents were out in the evening to feed the cows. Some Russians came, I was at home with my grandmother, and they wanted something from us, but we didn't understand them. They were pointing, but my grandmother didn't know, so she thought if by any chance they wanted milk, because that was put in the cellar. And when my parents arrived with a load of clover feed, they saw that the Russians were there, so Dad cleaned up the horses and Mom disappeared to the creek where there were bushes to hide. Dad was already home and the Russians kept asking for something, but we didn't understand them. Grandma kept asking if they wanted milk and went to the cellar and I went with her and they pushed Dad there and we were in the cellar. The door was closed and apparently they wanted to loot because there were wardrobes with laundry in the upstairs bedroom and mom just turned the key and it was on top. Only the cupboards couldn't be opened, so apparently they went looking for an axe. But we had a big basement, like a big room, and the windows were in the ceiling and dad climbed out through that window. At that time there was already a customs officer there, a Czech called Nicodemus. So he climbed out the window, went to the customs officer, he came in. And when he came in, the Russians ran away. Apparently they went to loot, but because the cupboards were closed and before they broke it with some axe, Mr. Nikodem came and they just ran away, they disappeared."

  • "When the Russians came, I know they were looking for a watch. Dad had to stand up, put his hands aside, and they looked at him with a gun to see if he had a watch. They said, 'Uri, Uri.' If he didn't have a watch, but it was already known, so he didn't have a watch. And I know there were rape cases with these Russians. The young girls would wear scarves and long skirts to look old. We used to sleep in the room where Ivan used to sleep, so there was a room like that in the attic. So above that room, as the roof is slanted, there's this space. That's where my mother and I slept, and the women from the neighborhood. We slept there because of the Russians. We used to climb up a ladder which we then pulled up and we slept there. The Russians, when they came, they usually had a horse and wagon. My father fried eggs for them, gave them food, and then they looked for women. They said, 'Frau, Frau.' And he said he didn't have any because we were hidden. Because there was no fence, they left the wagon with the horses in the yard. So he fed the horses, fried eggs for them. I think they left."

  • "Then the displacement actually began. I remember that the people walked because there was a road not far from the house. So they were walking, a procession of people, because they were going through Heřmanice to Krompach to the German border. They were parades, almost endless or long parades. These people were just wearing clothes, some of them even had a bag, but they were just wearing clothes and walking." - "And this was in June or May 1945, for example?" - "I don't know exactly, but just after the end of the war, the displacement started. And I know that they said that by winter, like by autumn we were back. Because they considered this their home, and now that they had to leave, they took it as a necessary evil. I'm sure they didn't believe it would be forever. And actually it was a good thing, because if they had known that, it would have been even harder for them to leave."

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    Liberec, 22.04.2024

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My mother, me and the neighbors hid in the attic from the Soviet soldiers.

While studying at the Business Academy in Liberec
While studying at the Business Academy in Liberec
photo: Archive of the witness

Markéta Formanová, née Köhlerová, was born on 17 December 1937 in the village of Heřmanice (German: Hermsdorf) into the German family of Otto and Anna Köhler. The family owned a large farm, on which she grew up. At that time, the farm was very modern, which was evidenced by the fact that, in addition to quality breeding horses, her father also owned modern agricultural equipment, which he used when working in the fields. After the end of the Second World War, the family of the witness, as well as the rest of the German population, was to be deported. However, the father applied for the so-called anti-fascist certificate for the family. They were granted thanks to the fact that the father’s family hid resistance fighters in nearby Polni Domce, where Otto Köhler came from, during the war. However, the negative experiences of the end of the war did not escape the family. For example, the Köhler family faced attempts of looting by Soviet soldiers. In 1947, they had to leave the homestead and move to the nearby village of Zdislava, and from there to Jablonné v Podještědí, where Markéta Formanová started attending a Czech school without knowing Czech. She continued her studies in Liberec at the Business Academy. From her youth she was active in sports and thanks to this she took part in the 1960 Spartakiada in Prague at Strahov. In the early 1960s she married and the couple had two children: an older daughter Markéta and a younger son Otto. She lived through the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops in Jablonné v Podještědí, when she witnessed the troops marching through the town towards Mimoň. In 2024, Markéta Formanová lived in Jablonné v Podještědí. We were able to record her story thanks to the financial support of the town of Jablonné v Podještědí.