Even some people from Hlučín region confused fascism with Germanness

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Erich Weigel was born on 26 February 1929 into a wealthy Catholic family in Kobeřice in near Hlučín. The Weigels owned a general store, a delicatessen and a restaurant there. Before the war they had already established the first petrol station in the village. After the annexation of Hlučín region to Germany in 1938, they became German citizens. One of the witness’s brothers had to enlist in the Wehrmacht. At the beginning of 1945 he fled with his father and the other brother to the Protectorate from the approaching front. They found asylum in Újezd near Uničov, where they lived to see the end of the war. After 1948 the communists closed their pub, confiscated their shops and their house. After graduating from high school, Erich Weigel had to enlist in the Technical auxiliary battalions, where he worked on various construction sites in Bohemia. He studied mechanical engineering in Brno. He worked in the Ingstav construction company in Opava. In 2021 he lived in a family house in Opava-Kylešovice. He died in 2022.