Hildegarda Pawlusová

“An armed Russian soldier approached me and shouted horribly. I don´t know what he was shouting because I did not understand. I could hear a word German several times. He grabbed me, was shaking me violently and was shouting at me. He was pushing me to the edge of the road and he pushed me violently and shouted at me. I fell on my face and was lying there. The captives started to grumble. But the soldier probably wanted to prove that he was the boss and he started hitting my back with a rifle butt. He was beating me and swearing. When he was done raging, he stopped and they continued towards Těšín. I was lying there shaken. I was actually glad that he did not shoot me.”

“They came for uncle František before anything happened. They chose him and did not say why, did not say how he had offended their big Reich. They arrested him and sent to a labour camp in occupied Poland. It was not a concentration camp, it was not a common prison; it was something in between, it was a labour camp.”