The Germans took my father, the communists took my property.
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Roland Waclav was born on the family farm in Všeruby near Plzeň on 7 August 1940. His grandmother was Czech, his grandfather German. All of their daughters, including his mother Terezie Mentberger, were registered as Czech. The witness’s father, Erwin Waclav, came from Vlkýš near Plzeň. After Hitler seized the Sudetenland, he had to enlist as a German in the Wehrmacht. He was killed in the battle of Stalingrad. The mother’s family owned a large farm opposite the church in Všeruby and ran an inn. Only the grandmother, the mother and little Roland survived the end of the war. After the war, all their property was confiscated. The mother, her young son and the dying grandmother were evicted from one room in their former inn. The grandmother died, and fate brought Alois Šnajdra into the path of the mother. The German, who had been requested by the Plzeň Škoda factory as an indispensable worker, did not have to be deported. At the end of the 1950s he got a job at the Svornost mine, and so the whole family moved to Jáchymov. Roland Waclav trained as a locksmith. He worked in the Jáchymov mines. Having got married, he moved to Karlovy Vary. He worked at Tesla Jáchymov for over ten years, then at Becherovka in Karlovy Vary. He has been an enthusiastic canoeist and art collector all his life. He lived in Karlovy Vary in 2023.
