“When we were crossing from Nové Domy to Röllmühle in the winter, there was an inn, it´s still standing there. There, my mother first asked where Röllmühle was. There was a light inside, there were smugglers, they used to stop there. My father was caught smuggling twice. But it made difference who caught him, whether they were soldiers or customs officers. The soldiers were dangerous, the customs officers just took something from him. He was caught by customs officers. Once he was carrying a tablecloth and twelve napkins, so they took just one napkin. He was allowed to take the other things. The second time he was caught with bed linen, so they took a pillowcase. He brought the other things to Röllmühle. There used to be lively traffic in the forest, anyway. People met and warned each other. It was twenty kilometres from Hazlov to Röllmühle. "
“It was quite challenging because it was winter, it was cold, and we didn't even know where Röllmühle was. On the way we were very lucky to see a woman peeking out of the window, and she advised us to turn left behind the viaduct. So we were walking, but we still didn't see Röllmühle. We had a rest there and my mother went to the valley, there was a bend. So she went around it and saw a light. It was a big coincidence, my father was just returning from Hazlov. He was carrying things across the border. And he had to arrange a horse-drawn carriage at night. We went to Nové Domy three times and then back to Röllmühle. Adults carried things behind the houses on the road. Old Mrs. Pecher, Mariane Wonka and I, we could stay at Röllmühle. We could sleep while the others were walking until morning."
"People were interrogated and beaten at the town hall, I heard that. It was quite a noise, screaming. When it started, my uncle immediately led me inside the house. Speaking of that, I have to say that I saw it with child's eyes then. The child's attitude to what was happening will be remembered that way. When you look at it back as an adult, everything seems suddenly to be much smaller. But I just heard what I heard then. There was one person who betrayed people. His name was Ebert. He wore a military cap and wasn´t very tall. Every time he was leaving the town hall, we were watching what direction he was going. And who might he be going to? To those or these [people]? And then, when the people disappeared, it was clear that we were right. It was him who denounced them.”
Wolfgang Kupferschmidt was born on May 24, 1938 in Nejdek. His father came from the Most region, his maternal grandfather was a headmaster of the town school in Nejdek, and his grandmother’s family ran a bobbin lace wholesale business. During the war, his father had to enlist, so little Wolfgang spent his childhood mainly with his grandparents. When the war ended in May 1945, their apartment was occupied by the Russians who set up their command in it. In June 1945, the grandparents were captured and dragged away to an unknown location. Wolfgang witnessed events in the post-war Nejdek, where he remained until the end of 1945. On December 19, 1945, accompanied by his mother and other family friends, he managed to get to Germany, where his father had already been waiting for them. The family settled at the Bavarian borderlands, in the immediate vicinity of the border with Czechoslovakia. After finishing the school, the witness managed to get a job at a bank and become a bank clerk. With a short break he practiced this profession for the rest of his life. He and his wife have two sons. For many years he was involved in the Sudeten German Landsmanship, until medical conditions prevented him from doing so.
