Maria Frank

“I could only say that we would flock together like a bunch of scared chickens. Both my mother and my grandmother were quite upset, we had to leave everything in half an hour. As children, we had no idea what was going on, why all of a sudden something like this was happening so fast. My mother sent me to the first floor, telling me I should get my essentials, but I didn't know why. Why must everything go away so fast. So I brought my toy iron. And this had made my mother so angry. But back then, this iron was essential for me. Then we got on a cart and we were supposed to go to Cheb, to a camp. I couldn't understand why my parents were crying so much. I was happy that we would travel, like those people from Silesia I met before. For me, it was all adventure, it wasn't this terrible experience my parents had. They were crying so hard.”

“I am a member of the Ackermann Gemeinde. It's an organization of Sudeten German Catholics who wanted reconciliation right from the start, not to get back some property they once had. I would go with them to Bohemia on a regular basis. I did my first tours even during communism. Back then, it was quite exciting, how they would treat us, we had to apply for visas. We even visited Potočiště, we visited the place quite unannounced. We saw what was still standing, but many buildings were already in ruins. I started coming to the East more often after 1989. As it was much easier after that. We would go twice or thrice a year with the Ackermann Gemeinde, to Poland and Slovakia as well. I was just amazed by so many beautiful things you could see there, that you couldn't see anywhere else. And there is this great difference between the times before 1989 and after. As so many things had been repaired. And that's something I find important, that one wouldn't let it rot. As there are buildings of immense value that just have to be repaired!”