Anna Šebková

“They were here two days, and the Russians came right after them. I can remember that. They were camped back here, and there’s a little hollow there. The Germans pushed their trucks into it and set them alight. The frames and the metal from them was all left there. And then they drove off. I know that Mummy’s cousin was here, she lived in Olomouc and her family owned a big tailor’s shop, they must have been quite well to do. They had fled Olomouc from the constant bombarding. So they lived with us and then they left with the Germans. Children and all. She had four children. The Russians where somewhere near Šumperk by then. They must have met with the Russians, but we never heard about it. And I know that Mummy used to say how (her cousin) had this big leather bag that she watched very carefully. And one time Mummy had a peak inside and it was full of gold. And when she met the Russians here at Šumperk, then...”

“We had a female teacher, because our teacher was probably at war. Later on in ’44 we had English captives in our class. They were officers mostly. I remember well that we played games with them. They could already speak German. The teacher always said: ‘These are our Todtfeinde. Our deadly enemies.’ But we played games with them. And they would go help the farmers, and I remember there were two who always came to us. One was named Alex and the other Len. They were always guarded by German soldiers, and they always blew the horn at five o’clock for roll call. But only one of them ever went. They always argued as to which of them shall go. When the one came back, the other asked: ‘How many of you were there?’ ‘Oh, only twelve today.’ Because as they called out the names - ‘Present!’ Everyone was present even when they weren’t. They trusted them that much. One of them even had a child with one of the German women here.”

“Daddy was in the war, but he was soon shot. Already in 1941, so he was home afterwards. He was in a hospital in Poland first, I don’t know where else afterwards, and then he came home. He couldn’t stand on one foot. He’d been shot in the leg and the foot was shorter. And so they didn’t call for him again.”