Helmut Schmidt

“He was later held in Kamenice, in his own prison in solitary confinement, alongside another roughly twenty people. And then they transported him by truck to Rabštejn, that was in early June, I think it was 4 June. So he was also there when the other transports, for example from Děčín the Germans, but also other nationalities for example from Austria or Hungary. In Rabštejn before that 6 June he was placed in the former concentration camp and on 6 June as I said, another transport arrived and with it a German named Helmut Khun, who already in that Děčín prison had promised the Czech, or Czechoslovak guards that he’d show them what he’d been through in the German concentration camp of Ravensbrück or even Buchenwald. It was all lies, but the Czech patrols believed him and he even started beating and torturing Germans in that Děčín prison. And that made him a Kapo, meaning a person responsible for German captives in the concentration camp.”

“He was my first sibling, this brother. You probably can’t imagine it, but at the time it was almost impossible for a newborn to survive. And so he did die on 10 October. I have the dates from my mother, I can only remember being told it as a story, apparently I had said: ‘Now Wolfgang is lying down in the pit and he can’t get out. It was in October 1945’.”

“What I’m interested in about Česká Kamenice is that it’s something of a backdrop to my social existence. I understand that my only connection to Česká Kamenice is what was mediated through my grandparents. As well as a certain humanism that my grandfather talked about after his stay in Rabštejn, that was taken from Masaryk. Coexistence in a multinational monarchy was one of the things that defined my life. Above all, a certain tolerance handed down by my grandfather. But at the same time I know that the expulsion meant I’ve never, as they say so nicely, cast anchor. That’s a disadvantage. I only realised it at the moment I noticed I’d never properly let down roots in any one city. Part of that is having relatives, acquaintances there, knowing the history, being involved. I miss all of that.”