"It was so busy because the German soldiers kept changing and the village was still full of them. It was difficult to process, only that it was a necessity, that it must be survived. The Germans treated us well. But we were terribly afraid of the Russians. Everyone was shaking. There was a lot of talk about what was happening and what the Russians were doing. So the propaganda lived. Then it got worse. There were a lot of wounded everywhere. Carriages to the cemetery. It was hard to live through. "
"It was a matter of one day. The tanks chased each other, but then a few days before the end came a maelstrom. The first hit was our barn and half the barn fell. At the neighbors up there, at the peasants, there was a dead girl, a little younger than me. There were three dead in the square. There were about seven dead in one fell swoop. Near us, a German soldier lay under a barn in the garden and lost his hearing. Otherwise, nothing happened there. During the war, our aunt from Darkovičky come to live with us with her four girls, and a fifth one from the neighbors. They came with all the animals. They had a larger farm, so they transported three cows, sheep and the little ones. They were here through that period. "
"The militia came and I think they were even worse than the Russians. People relaxed that it was all over and that it was calm, but it was not, because the militia was coming again. They stole, robbed and reported people. They also took the cattle that were left here. "
"My mother’s health suffered. It bothered her so much. Somehow she couldn't put up with it, but she survived. She was a strong woman. At night, when she woke up, she just cried out loud. What will happen to those children. It has a terrible effect on the psyche. "
Hildegarda Návratová, born Drzewjanová, was born on June 29, 1930 to parents Josef and Maria in Ludgeřovice. Like the vast majority of the locals, her parents claimed Moravec nationality, and spoke a characteristic language influenced by almost two hundred years of life in Prussia. The whole of Hlučínsko, and with it Ludgeřovice, were annexed to Czechoslovakia only after the Treaty of Versailles in January 1920. After the Munich Agreement, Hlučínsko, unlike other occupied border areas, was annexed directly to the Third Reich and local men were subject to German military service. Sometime during this period, family members changed their last name from the Slavic-sounding Drzewjan to Dinter, because of problems with the German authorities. During World War II, four of Hildegard’s brothers had to enlist in the Wehrmacht. They passed through various fronts and prisoner of war camps, and it was not until several months after the war that three of them returned home. The youngest Rudolf fell in March 1945 near Gdańsk. In Ludgeřovice, Hildegarda experienced battles between the Red Army and German soldiers at the end of the war, which cost the lives of several inhabitants of the village, and one of the bombs also destroyed the family barn. Hildegard also recalls the looting of members of the Revolutionary Guards, who dragged several men from the village to the infamous Hanke internment camp in Ostrava. In 1951, Hildegarda married Alfons Návrat, a native of Markvartovice. His three brothers also had to enlist in the Wehrmacht during World War II, and two of them never returned home. In 1983, Hildegarda Návratová’s son emigrated to the Federal Republic of Germany. They could meet again only after the fall of the communist regime. In 2014, at the time of the interview, Hildegarda Návratová was still living with her husband in her hometown in Ludgeřovice.
