Hugo Reiský

„Lots of civilians must have run away from Opole. The roads must have been full of people." "Not only the roads but also the trains. In open trains. Those people were freezing in those wagons because the traffic was already limited. You can not imagine what that meant. Those people were suffering... What a war that was. People were literally freezing to death in those wagons. They travelled from Poland, although it had been German territory. So many horses, cows and all. They would use carts. They walked on foot. What a horror.“

„Five kilometers from Nienburg we had to exit the train because the routes there were under the supervision of English aviators. They flew over there all the time and observed what was up. And whenever a cartload showed up or a car, they would shoot it down and that was it. So we travelled there through a forest at night. And we got as far as to that Nienburg. However, we needed to leave that Nienburg soon enough because the mayor proclaimed Niemburg an ‚open city‘ and therefore no army was allowed there. So our commander told us: ‚So let’s leave the town and camp somewhere in the woods. There we will pitch tents and see what happens next.‘ Then on 13 April he called us and told us that the war is over anyway that it is no use for us to travel somewhere. That he lives close. ‚I am telling you it today. I am going home, regardless on what is up. I am releasing you. If you need some paper, I will give it to you. But apart from that I release you because it is no use to risk our lives anymore. This is the end of the war. Do whatever you feel like. Those who are further, cross to the English. They will take you captive.‘ So we went. He only drew our attention to that if we met some SS military patrol, we were supposed to shoot first. Otherwise they would shoot us without a trial, without a problem.“

„A soldier with a rifle on his shoulder always lead us from the camp. So we would ask him: ‚You don’t need a rifle against us. We have nothing we could use as a weapon indeed.‘ He said: ‚That’s not against you. That’s against those people.‘ Because they didn’t fancy the Germans after the war, that‘s for sure. Even during the ride when they transported us to the camp – they drove us by car for instance or we went a part of the journey in open wagons, because then we had problems there. And every time we went under some bridge, those soldiers who accompanied us would warn us: ‚Now crawl somewhere by the side because we are going under a bridge.‘ People stood there and threw stones at us and poured down water and such. As I said, that was the beginning after the war. It had to be. We would swear but today I’m not wondering at all that those people were in such a rage. Experience teaches a man.“

„(What mostly comes back to you from the WW II. period?) I said, that it was real slaughter. That was not war anymore. If you consider how the superpowers behaved to each other... My grandpa used to say: ‚Hitler, that means death.‘ He awfully hated Hitler. Even though he studied at German schools. But he used to say that the name Hitler should be erased from everywhere. „