Emil Pupik

“The Germans had to lie on their backs, one on the other. The Czechs shot at them. If someone was lying on top of a fat man, he got hit.”

“The Germans were to report to the employment office in Bratislavská Street because of work. We came there a group of about six people. They took everything we had with us. Then they led us across the yard in the direction of Cejl. On the way we passed by a largish group of Czechs. One of them called out at me: ‘Emil, what are they doing with you? First you’re locked up by the Hitlerites, now by our people. What did you do to them?’ I called back: ‘You know me, I didn’t do anything.’ And straight off one of the people guarding us kicked me so that I didn’t lag behind.”

“To make us Germans afraid, they shot at us. Every day we had a cart full of dead people, who had to be taken out.”

“One time one of the prison guards came up with the idea to build three gallows in Kounice [Student Hall]. Seven of us Germans built them. They rounded up one man who was to be hanged. And then someone said, seeing that they have three gallows, they should hang three people. They chose me as the second one, then they designated a third. They tied our hands behind our back and put the noose around our necks. I stood there on an empty beer barrel, scared stiff and balancing to avoid hanging myself. They were standing around me, I was ready. At that moment someone came running up the yard, shouting: It’s the inspection from Prague!”

“When the guards were tired, they were relieved by Munitioners. They bear us too, and we had to play cat or dog.”

“I was fifteen and something years old. In Slovakia I saw that the Hitlerites behaved like bandits. And so I decided that I’d continue to be an electrician, but not at the munitions plant. I informed the factory management that they should find me a new job. In three days. The top German boss of the munitions plant replied: ‘When you work, it is all for Hitler.’ Three days later a man came to our house and asked for me. He was looking for one Pupik who didn’t want to work. I told him I did want to work, just not at the munitions plant. He gave me an address and told me to take some things for the night. Mum packed my suitcase, and I took the tram to Královo Pole. I found the address and a house with big iron gates. There was no name on the door. I rang the bell and waited a while. As soon as they opened the door, I realised where I was. I saw some boys crawling along the ground. There were shards of glass and rocks on the ground. They were crawling through that, their elbows were bloody. They were waiting for me. They showed me where I would sleep. I was lucky that I was an electrician, although I hadn’t completed my training. They desperately needed an electrician, they had a motor that needed to be fixed. I repaired it in no hurry because I realised that afterwards I would also be sent crawling. After some time I asked one guard, who was a humane sort, how long I’d have to be there. He told me I had unbestimmte [indeterminate] written in my papers. I asked the guard how that could be changed. He told me that I would have to go to the commander and tell him I wanted to go back to the munitions plant. In that way I could get back home in about a fortnight. All in all I was there three months and two weeks.”

“There were lots of rumours at the time. It was said they’d send us to the station. That happened. There was a check-up at the station. We had to burn the white bands with numbers. We got a small suitcase, about 20 by 30 cm, which contained one handkerchief. Next I received about three thousand marks. They took all of that away from afterwards. They placed me into the first wagon, they put about forty people there. It was completely full. We waited for the train to start. They said: Act calm, we’ll be crossing the borders. Someone said we were going to the Russian zone, that they need people for work there. We stopped some time later. The door opened. When we heard Furth im Wald, we knew we were in Bavaria. I got out because I was thirsty. I heard crying from the wagons. People were crying out of joy, that they wouldn’t be beaten any more, that they wouldn’t be raped any more. I asked around for some water. I was told I had to go to the last wagon. In the last wagon I saw my grandmother. It was the first person from my family that I’d seen in a long time. I asked if I could take my grandmother with me into the first wagon. They let me. If I hadn’t gotten out, I might never have seen her again. They uncoupled the wagons one by one. The last wagon would have been uncoupled first.”

(Emil Pupik was a member of the Hitler Youth.) “Once, it was about 1943, we travelled to Slovakia. Our task was to dig out some trenches. We were supposed to slow down the advance of Soviet tanks. The Hitlerites behaved like bandits there. I said I wouldn’t support such people any longer. In the evening they beat me up because of it. It was an exception that I went to Slovakia, because I worked at a munitions plant, and that had top priority during the war. When I returned I decided that I wouldn’t support this system any longer and that I’d quit the munitions plant.”