Jarmila Pösslová

* 1928

Participant in antifascist resistance
15. 3. 1939 - The Nazi occupation of ČSR, 1. 9. 1939 - The outbreak of the WW2, 1944 - 1945 - The liberation of Czechoslovakia
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    The End of the War

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    “Germans were retreating in a hurry. I remember one event. When the frontline came to our village – trough our village passed three armies: Poles, Russians and Hungarians – they were arriving down a nearby hill. When the frontline had been passing across our village, we were all hiding in a shelter because of heavy shelling and gunfire. Suddenly my mother told me: ‘Go to visit grandparents to find out, if they are ok.’ ‘I am so afraid’, I answered. It was a dark night with heavy raining, sleet, you know. ‘Go or else…!’ I could not grasp how my mother could send me there. Just imagine, I had to pass about 50 meters in the midst of the battle. Germans were retreating and the three armies followed them. I had never seen such a mass: everyone was in a hurry; it was dark, gunfire, and shouting in four languages around. I will never forget this night. Then the frontline moved on. In the morning we were free. But it was not all over yet. Some Germans remained around. My mother sent me out again: ‘Jarka, you have to go to a loft, there is hay for our cow. It is hungry already, so you have to go.’ I went. I climbed up a ladder and opened the door of the loft in the barn gable. At the very moment a bullet hit the gable next to me. I slide down the ladder as quickly as possible and the cow remained hungry. The village was surrounded by hills and groves where some Germans were still hiding. Later they stopped the shooting and even begged for help in return for weapons. Some even wanted locals to testify they had helped them during the war. But Germans were cruel actually.”

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    Germans in Sudetenland

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    “German communities were in Vyškov area. Before Hitler came, everything was fine. Czechs and Germans were living in peace. After Hitler occupied our country Germans became arrogant. They started to expel Czechs who had to move away. I remember one family living in a villa in Ruprechtov. They had a store in the villa and all six members were forced to move into a one room flat. They had to work at a farm and German occupied their property. Times were rude.”

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    Escaping Partisans

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    “I have one strong impression. Partisans had to run away from our village several times, but I remember especially one event. One of them in age of 40 or 50, I didn’t know where he had come from, has a piece of linen, which he picked up from the castle. In those days everything had its value. I was not surprised he had seized it. After we lead them across the hill, showed them were to go on the other side, and where were the railroad and the main road, he unfastened the linen saying: ‘Girls, take this. If I will survive the war, I will return here.’ But he never returned.”

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    Farmers – Blackmailers

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    “I remember how wealthy farmers treated children, how they blackmailed people in days of the First Republic. I was a child then and I cried a lot when I saw ten small children living in one room, without sufficient meals, ill with rheumatism. Later I have realized that communism was not the miracle people were awaiting. I found that communism is a dictatorship of proletariat. (How did you realize that?) I don’t know. Maybe it was something in my soul, some social feeling… I decided not to become a member of the communist party!”

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    Russian Partisans of the Unit Olga

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    “Russian partisans participated in the unit named Olga. They were good people indeed. One of them was called Nikolajev. He was a well-built guy, but later he was shot at his knee, so he could not fight any more. Another one was shot death before our eyes, when the Germans were running away. A car full of German soldiers was passing by and soldiers were shooting recklessly around. 20 people were shot death… A lot of Russians were among the partisans.”

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    Bruntál, 17.09.2008

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    duration: 34:58
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“I would be happier, if people were less selfish, envious, and would care about the poor.”

Posslová Jarmila
Posslová Jarmila
photo: Archiv pamětníka
photo: Archiv pamětníka
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Jarmila Pösslova was born on the 10th of February in 1920 in Nemochovice near Vyškov. She was trained as a salesgirl. During the Second World War, she participated in the Czech resistance movement around Nemochovice where a Partisan group called Jan Žižka z Trocnova - unit Olga - had operated. Her family helped the partisans obtain clothes, bandages, food, or information, and to find secure hiding places. They were sheltering the partisans as well. After the war in 1948 she got married to a forester. They had lived near Bruntál in a former hunter’s manor.

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