Egon Urmann

“In 1947, my parents anticipated that we would go soon. However, for a while, it looked like we wouldn’t have to go in the end. So they did the hay, dug out the potatoes and stocked up for the winter. On October 2, two policemen came with a truck and told us that we were to show up at the train station for the transport to a glass factory in Včelnička near Kamenice nad Lipou. In this way we were transferred there and later, another four families came there, for instance a family of a glassmaker from Vimperk. Other glassworks needed skilled workers and people here complained that there were too many Germans here. So we ended up this way.”

“Those who were well informed knew that the forced deportation of the German population was in the offing. The smarter ones with access to better information actually packed their stuff in advance and fled across the border. But the conservative people who were clinging tightly to the ground – and this type of people represented the majority of the German population – they kept sitting in Žleby until they were taken on a transport to the camp. In the camp, they spent two or three months and then they were put on a train to Germany. In short, these people often didn’t believe that this could ever happen. Even after they were deported to Germany, maybe to Nuremberg where they were supposed to settle and find a new home, they would return to Bavaria where the social conditions and poverty were much worse – to not even speak about the fact that they weren’t welcome there – just to be close to the border area and to wait for the opportunity to return back home in case the conditions would improve. They thought that they just had to wait until things get better and they’d be allowed to return. That’s why most of these former deportees are to be found in Bavaria. Because even when they were moved to somewhere else, perhaps to the Rhineland, they would come back here and wait for their chance to return. That’s why in the area between Passau to the border, there are villages, whose inhabitants are composed up to maybe a half of our people.”

“There were no shootouts here, the sort of skirmishes, as they were taking place in other places. My mom said that she didn’t have anything herself that she would take across the border because we didn’t have much. However, she would help carry things for others – maybe a painting or a sewing machine. She went from Žleby down to Horní and Dolní Cazov. She told me that many times they lay hidden behind the stone terraces and the border guards were afraid to let go their dog because they were afraid that it might get shot. Mom recalled that if those border guards had only known that it was just two frightened women hiding there, they would have thrown themselves at them. They were shooting like crazy at my mom, the bullets were whizzing above their heads. She was taking huge risks but she was at home in that environment and knew every stone there. When it got dark, these guards had no chance. Only the dog could become dangerous. But they would cross the border at night when it was dark and it was only five hundred meters to the border from there.”

“The house where I was born technically was part of České Žleby, although in fact, it was on the outskirts of Lenora, just across the river. The people from that village lived about three kilometers away from the border. In spite of this, they would accept the suffering, the interrogations, the beatings, torture. They could have escaped anytime. But they thought: ‘Why would I run away? It’s bad right now, but it will pass, it will not take long and there will be peace again. This is quite extraordinary if you take into account that violent beatings of Germans were on the order of the day. For instance, they would gather all the men from the village and beat them, let them kneel – that sort of torture. Then they would send them home again. But these were innocent people. Those who had actually done something were put in jail right away. Mostly, they were taken to Písek and given long prison terms, ranging anywhere between 10 to 20 years. But these were innocent people, more or less loyal people who took the brunt of the retaliations. For instance, there was a guy called ‘fackář’ (slapper). He had a liking for slapping people.”