Helmut Bartsch

"In February, the snow was gone, and we were burning leaves. We were boys and we threw spruce twigs into the fire. Not far away from us was a German lieutenant, a commander of the army. The fire could have been seen and there was fighting going on. And they held military duty on that day – they went down and saw everything. And as they saw the fire, the commander immediately gave the order to open fire at it. And we were there, three or four guys. Those who were on duty quickly ran down and my mother came and beat us up badly with a belt. It was bad."

"They came at night. Someone suddenly started banging on the door. It was the main commissioner from Uhelná who came from Ostrava and with him a soldier. Suddenly they were banging on our door. Nobody ever told us why they came and what they wanted. They just said to my dad: 'you're coming with us'. I witnessed it all because I slept in the bedroom as well. My father had trouble getting up from bed because he was recovering from a serious war injury. For that he was punched in the face right away. My mother protested a little. She said: 'What's going on here? He didn't do anything wrong'. The Commissioner spoke German. He said: 'Setzen Sie sich, or I'll shoot you'! So they took my dad away and me, my sisters and my mother, we hid in the forest. We were afraid that they might come for us as well. It started to rain, so I went home to see if the air was clear. Nobody came for us anymore."

"They had a few rifles and stood there (the Henlein supporters, note by the author). The financial guards marched along. They were armed and had hand grenades. And when they reached the bridge they stopped them: 'Halt! Surrender!' The two of them jumped into the river under the bridge and before long, one of them (there was Majzlík and Gebauer) threw a hand grenade on the other side. Soon there were about seven wounded by shrapnel. Among them was a certain Scharmannová who had been curious and wouldn't listen. A short walk away, there was a farm, so they took them there for treatment. Their injuries weren't too bad but it was bleeding a lot. As they threw the grenade, they opened fire in that direction. But it was already getting dark. Among them was a certain Hutner, who then spent the next 10 years in prison. So they were shooting in that direction and then it was quiet. In the morning of the next day, there lay a dead on that place. He was shot in the head and the other one fled."