Emilie Vančurová

"In Holýšov, a locomotive was shot. The conductors always took it behind the village, a little bit behind the station, and had it shot there. And so, when they shot it, I said to myself, I'm not going home on foot. So, I packed up and went home in the evening. I took my suitcase, all I had was a suitcase and a package. I went to the train, I had a pass. I had to turn it in every week. I had to turn it in on Monday and come back for it on Saturday, so I didn't turn it in, I kept it. I got to Pilsen, but the train didn't run from Pilsen anymore. Around 10 o'clock a train left Pilsen for Strakonice, for Budějice. So, I waited there for a while. Then they eventually sent a train, but it didn't go to Strakonice, it only went to Horažďovice. And in Horažďovice we had to get off, the train ended there."

"Some weren't bad, otherwise they couldn't get to us. Then a foreman came there from Reich from some factory, because even the foremen, even though they were Sudeten, had to go to war. This one was a Sudeten and he knew Czech, badly, but he knew it. So, he wasn't bad, he had a squint in one eye and a glaucoma in the other, so he couldn't see well, so he didn't have to go to the front. But those who were able, they all went and none of them came back."

"On February 13, 1942, we had to assemble. A clerk from the labour office took us to Strakonice. We went by train. There were several of us, about six of us from Volyně. In Strakonice, girls from Strakonice and girls from Písek joined us. So, he took us to Pilsen and then from Pilsen to Holýšov. That was the Sudetenland."