Marianne Pasetti-Svoboda

“I was born in Prague. All my family came from Prague. They were Germans, but all of them naturally knew Czech. When I was a little girl, I learnt Czech first. I think that even now my accent is rather Czech.”

“During the Protectorate, a border line was established on the railway between Prague and Doksy. My mother travelled to Prague several times and she would always meet one Czech woman who begged Mom to smuggle her suitcase, which was loaded with food. Mom was naturally glad she could help. At the end of the war this woman then wrote a testimonial about my mother, testifying that mother had behaved well during the war. Thanks to this, Mom was then allowed to ride trains after the war, which was otherwise prohibited to Germans.”

“Mom kept saying: ´I am an Austrian! I am neither a Czech nor German. I am just an Austrian.´ I can understand her, because she had grown up in a different state. But you should know that we loved President Masaryk. When he died, we followed his funeral in the newspapers and on the radio, and we cried a lot. We really loved him. But we didn’t like Beneš, however, because he was against Germans - he was opposed to Germans from the very beginning.”

“Doctor Klapka was the mayor of Loket. He was very nice. Very suddenly they imprisoned our poor grandma, and interned her in the casemates at the castle. She didn’t even know why they imprisoned her. With the help of Doctor Klapka, Mother found a lawyer. We learnt that the reason for her arrest was because she had moved to Loket, thereby avoiding the internment of Germans in Prague. The lawyer couldn’t do anything for her. But Grandma sent us a message that they were treating her well. One day, when I was already working in the district office, a police chief came into our office. He asked me: ´How is your grandma doing?´ I replied: ´But Mr. director, you must know this better than I.´ And I began crying. He then told me to come for my grandma. He wrote a release order for me, and I ran up there immediately. There was a heavy gate, and I banged on it, and said: ´Please, I have come for my grandma.´ A young policeman who was by the gate told me: ´But your grandma is not here anymore! We transported her to Cheb!´ I began crying again. He told me to wait a moment and then he eventually brought my grandma to me.”