Karel Mráz

„At that farm which my dad had taken over in some way, they had a horse. And dad would drive the expelled folk from Horní Planá to Zvonková to tje customs’ office. Here in Horní Planá, under the council building, there was the town scales (it was this large underground scale and there was a booth) and that’s what I remember, how people assigned for expulsion gathered there. Well, assigned, some were assigned and some went voluntarily and those were in majority because they were scared what would they do, what would happen to them here among the Czechs, whether they would be able to live in peace here. So I remember that everyone carried a bundle, they usually took their duvets so that they would have somewhere to sleep. Or something to sleep on. Or under. So they weighed those bundles. We would go and watch as kids. They could take thirty kilos each so the bundles were 30 kilos. They placed it on the cart and then walked past the cart to the [Austrian] border. There, the bundles were unloaded and we went back. I was there with my dad maybe twice. And there was this thing that fascinated me, when we were crossing the river on the bridge, it was an iron bridge, they [Germans] wanted to tear it down but they did not manage, they only tore down the central support and the bridge was bent, so one drove to the bridge like this towards the water and then upwards.”