Being labeled German made my life miserable
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Lydia Němcová, née Dastig, was born on 23 February 1944 in the city of Amnéville in France. Her mother was French and her father came from Sudice na Hlučínsku. Her parents met in the barracks in Thionville, a city under German occupation after France’s capitulation in 1940. Lydia’s mother helped in kitchen there. Her father, a butcher by trade, who had to be drafted into the Wehrmacht, was in charge of the barracks canteen. He was sent to the Russian front following his wedding. At the end of war, having returned to Sudice, the Czechoslovak authorities would not permit him to travel to France, so he convinced his wife to move to him, their daughter in tow, which she did in 1947. Lydia did not speak Czech and spoke with her parents in German only. The family had a tough position living in a village whose majority of original inhabitants had been expulsed to Germany. Because of her origins, she was not even accepted into trade school. She performed about five years of heavy labor on constructions sites, and afterwards she made a living as a store clerk. She is retired and lives in Sudice.
