Žofie Pekařová

“Our grandfather, he came from Rožínky, he spoke Czech, but he also spoke German with us. Grandma was from Pohořelice, so she was already Czecho-German, it was already mixed there, her parents were already mixed. Pohořelice were kind of both ways back then. Say our dad used to say: ‘We went to a German school and spoke Czech.’ It was normal in those days, it wasn’t until in thirty-eight that it somehow crystallised and the troubles between nationalities began. But before that it was normal here. There weren’t even any borders here back under the monarchy, so the nationalities mixed and no one found it strange at all.”

“There were thirty-two of us in that cellar. We had a big cellar, plus it was divided up in two halves. We fit a lot of people in there, and the front cellar also gave cover to the neighbours who didn’t have any shelter or cellar. They then came to us, and they were with us throughout the occupation and throughout the front. We even contracted dysentery there because there was practically no hygiene there seeing that we were closed up all the time. But we survived. But in the end we stayed down there when the Russians came. They really treated us like Germans, it was rough. They raped. I know that even our mum had to flee a number of times. And she was with a six-months-old baby! But she had to hide sometimes because it was dangerous for them. They shot Grandpa, my mum’s father, because they wanted the girls there too. Afterwards one Russian officer told them: ‘Smear up the sign on your house, because they have it labelled that there are girls here.’ They always found some wine in some cellar, there was a whole group of them, and then they roamed around and raped. It was dreadful.”