Horst Adler

“Day in and day out we spoke about life back home, what it would have looked now. I knew the names of our neighbour, I knew the names of all the streets. When I went to Czechoslovakia for the first time in the 1970s, I just had to look and I knew immediately that this was there and that was there. This was the constant theme of our talks at home, we spoke about it all the time. I was just two when we left, I did not remember anything, but I knew everything. I internalized all these things that when someone asks about my home, I reply Dolní Paseky. Of course, I spent a large part of my life in Tirschenreuth, I am, in a way, at home here too, I feel well here, but when someone asks about my homeland, I naturally say Aš or Dolní Paseky.“

“It was a big surprise when we came to Aš again. People still remembered what the town looked like when they were leaving it. They had this picture on their minds and the reality when they arrived… well, it was very interesting. Much had been destroyed, there were ruins everywhere. During the long reign of the communist regime the town was plundered, some parts of it were quite demolished. It was dreadful to look at. Derelict and unkept houses all around. Today the town looks quite different. The ruins were cleared and where there were factories is now green.”