Franziska Krampfl

What I really hated at the time was the sign nailed to the station: “No transport of Germans and dogs!” That really got to me at the time, I’ll never forget it. That was nice. And then, when we went shopping, we actually had to wait for the Czechs to shop first, before it was our turn. That’s another thing I still know. Otherwise I don’t know anything. I didn’t live in the village, people from the village knew more, we had peace and quiet, we had been able to live in peace.

We also moved our things to Bavaria in case we were expelled. At the time it was… we were simply too young. I can only remember my brother. My big brother wasn’t with us then, he was doing forced labour in Bohemia, but the smaller brother went with us. Once he was so tired that my father told him: “No, sit down on this stool until we come back, then we’ll pick you up here.” And that was it, he slept there, because he couldn’t go any further. Yes, that’s how it was. But it was no good for us. It wasn’t far, it was in Lohberg, where we had stored our things. It was a war friend of our neighbour, that’s who we left our things with. It was close to the border. It was just a little way from us, we crossed over near Ostrý, from Malý Ostrý there was this path to the other side. They knew about it. There was always someone with us, smuggling us over.

We were on a field, my father and I, we were working on the potato field, and suddenly a young man walked in from a distance, he had some kind of paper in his hand which he gave to my father. And that paper said we were to be ready the next morning at eight, that we were to be expelled. And below that was written that as a result all German property would be confiscated by the Czech state. The end. That was dispossession. Our father unyoked the oxen and we headed back home. My brother was already there, he’d found out before us. They had sent him home early. And then we were home. Father said: “So tomorrow they will deport us!” We had nothing ready, no boxes, nothing. Things had just started going, we were in the very first transports. There was a sawmill nearby, he went to talk to the man there and said: “You have to knock me up some crates, we’re to be deported tomorrow and don’t have anything to take with us.” And he did it, hammering together some simple crates out of planks and that’s how it went down. Yes, it was bad. What did people take with them? They said fifty kilograms, food for eight days into the camp, we had to have supplies for eight days. That’s how it was back then.

Tief drin im Böhmerwald, da liegt mein Heimatort; es ist gar lang schon her, daß ich von dort bin fort. Doch die Erinnerung, die bleibt mir stets gewiß, daß ich den Böhmerwald gar nie vergiß. Es war im Böhmerwald, wo meine Wiege stand, im schönen, grünen Böhmerwald, es war im Böhmerwald, wo meine Wiege stand, im schönen, grünen Wald. Nur einmal noch, o Herr, laß mich die Heimat seh'n, den schönen Böhmerwald, die Täler und die Höh'n; dann kehr' ich gern zurück und rufe freudig aus: Behüt dich, Böhmerwald, ich bleib' zu Haus!