Josef Paul

"The war ended on May 8, 1945. American soldiers came to us from the northwest, and I saw a colored soldier for the first time in my life. The soldiers settled into beds at my aunt’s and at the neighbors in boots and ordered eggs to eat, because they wanted to be sure we wouldn't poison them. But they only stayed one night and then moved on. They belonged to the unit of General Patton, there is his memorial in Pilsen. I have to admit, it was a relief to see them. It had been clear for several months that Germany would not win this war, and everyone just wished it was gone. "

"I remember this much of Köthen - that the food was on the tickets, there it was scarce and that the winter of 1946/1947 was especially cold. As a child, I had to walk in line with an aluminium can to get soup with sausage or whey. It took very long. Otherwise, it was also common to go pick the field, collecting spikelets that remained lying there, knocking grain out of them and thus having flour. It was a big shock for my family, especially for the older generation. My grandparents survived the First and Second World Wars and now had nothing here. At home they had a farm around which everything revolved, thirty-nine hectares, now they had nothing at all. My grandfather found a job at the railway, so he brought some coal home.”

"Historians have this one motto: Sine ira et studio. This means that history should be judged without anger and exaggerated haste and on the basis of getting acquainted with them. I now have enough distance, I will not live long and I also got information that we did not have before. At a distance, one sees things differently. "