“The people who were selected had to gather at this place in front of a church. And my grandfather would drive them there on his horse-cart, with all the stuff they were allowed to take with them. That´s the thing I remember. They went in waves. There were several waves of expulsion. From Hradečná, they went to displacement camp in Štěpánová. Later, as we were allowed to come to see them, they told us that the camps were infested with bedbugs and fleas as the plank beds on which they were sleeping were still warm due to people lying on them. At 5AM, they would put them in train-cars, and in the afternoon, more Germans come and took over the plank beds. There was no changing or anything like that so insects thrived in such conditions. As Germans would come in dirty rags from the labour camps they had been in.”
"The Germans were forcing Russians to march westwards. They were so wretched that the locals who were watching would slip them this piece of bread from time to time. They had no shoes, often walking just with these rugs wrapped around their feet. Spring didn´t come yet and outside there was sleet and slurry. Those poor devils. Then they would put them into this big barn in Hradečná for the night. My grandfather who was about seventy years old and had been serving in Volkssturm back then had to watch over them. He said that the Russians were happy that they could get some rest on piles of straw. They were boiling potatoes for them in these cauldrons, and my grandfather said that later, as the German soldiers would go on patrol, they would bring them slices of bread in their pockets. You couldn´t do that yet they were giving bread to the Russians.”
Editha Kobzová was born on July 19th 1934 in Šumperk as the only child of Adolf and Hedvika Brosig. Both of her parents were of German nationality. However, her mother fell ill with an “open” tuberculosis and died in 1936 at the age of twenty-six. Editha, not even two years old, had been adopted by her grandfather, Willibald Weigel, and his second wife, Marie. Editha, her grandfather and his wife were not expelled with the rest of the German residents after the war and had been living in Hradečná ( Markersdorf in German and Nová Hradečná since 1960). Editha witnessed both native inhabitants leaving the village and the arrival of new colonists. In 1956, she married Erwin Kobza with whom she moved to Nedvězi four years later. Her husband was of German nationality as well. At the end of the Second World War, he had to join the Wehrmacht before reaching his majority and participate in the fighting during the retreat in today´s Poland. Since coming to Nezdvězi till her retirement, Editha Kobzová had been working in a factory producing wire products in nearby village of Kamenná. She gave birth to three children: Oto, Edita and Tomáš. In 2019, she has been living in the village of Nedvězí.
