Marie Halfarová

“We went to Kylešovice and it was drizzling all the way. I remember that. We had nothing but clothes on. We went through the ditches along the roads, because there were many Russians everywhere. Full of soldiers! You can't imagine that. In the evening we came wet to Kylešovice, but nobody wanted to take us. They swore at us that we were Germans. Eventually, we were accepted somewhere, we were lying on the floor in one kitchen, all wet. We just lay there, rested a bit, and in the morning we went home. Dad said that we cannot go through Opava because he would be arrested there immediately. So, we came home and found a burnt barn.”

“As the Russians were approaching, we drove back to Stará Voda. We were there for a week. The Russians were already in Budišov, I think. There were a lot of people and cars. We went over a large hill from Stará Voda to Libava. We had to hitch two pairs of horses to pull the carriages up. Suddenly, there were Russians with planes over us. They saw us and started shooting at us. We all were already on that hill. On one side there was a small forest, on the other side a field and then a large forest. We ran into the woods, carriages and horses stayed on the road. And the Russians killed all the horses. All! And then they shot at us.”