Marie Blabolilová

“There was a secretary here, he was such a scrooge at the beginning. They didn't give us any clothes vouchers, I didn't have even any nappies for the girls. People gave me torn duvet covers so that I had something to swathe them in. There were still those rubbers underneath so that it didn't..., you know. Well, it was just dreadful. I had no shoes for her. And the woman secretary told me once: “Well, you cannot buy her any proper shoes?” They thought..., but it was very expensive when you bought it on free market. Well and I gave her a real hell then. And she kept coming for milk to the farmers. They all had cows with calves but we had seven of them. So there was some milk from some of them all the time. Well, one day she came begging for a pint of milk. And I told her: “I feel like throwing you out but I'm not like that I wouldn't give you the milk for your children.” And she started coming for milk to our farm. And then when she saw what it was all like, she told him. We became the best friends then.”

“In the morning we had for example white coffee with bread crumbs in it, it was our breakfast. And an old woman sat at the stove in the evening and she went to pick some fine brushwood. I was always angry because I had already known something better from that family. And then she trampled on it and she fed the fire. She put some potatoes in the oven and then she always took a mug with a drop of water and put it in there so that it was steaming. And we had roast potatoes for dinner. They always made some quark for themselves. I never liked it so I had either garlic soup or milk soup. And it was like that almost every evening. And at midday at harvest time we had a big pot of potato soup. My Mum put some egg dumplings instead of noodles into the soup, there were some broken eggs in it, it was our lunch. There was no time to cook. Otherwise we cooked in an ordinary way, some dumplings but we ate potatoes most of the time. Well and when there was some pig-slaughtering you had plenty to eat, especially in winter. So we lived in quite poor conditions over here...”

“Well and all of a sudden they came and 'the Germans must leave'. They were not ready for it. It was an awful time, I wouldn't want to experience it. Then you knew the people. My Mum was not hurt by anyone. They were together, they had fun, there were various... you know. And they accepted Mum as if she was German. And now it was gone. It was terrible. And then the friend of mine. Off! I even didn't go to say good-bye to her, I even couldn't. I stood at the window and watched her marching down the hill with her bundle. They made some kind of sacks and put those seven kilos or how many it was into them. And the changeover was also horrible when the Germans from Mšeno ran through this place. A guy came completely stabbed over, he took a fork and stabbed him through. So he was all covered with blood. He asked if we had something... (clothes). We gave all father's stuff away, there was nothing left we could offer so we washed him at least. It was such a terrible chaos. They were so sore on the Germans. It was maybe not their fault. It was dreadful here, there were cars and they went here and there and they didn't know which way.” - Interviewer: “Do you mean at the end of the war?” - “At the end of the war.” - Interviewer: “That there were some...” - “Well, look, they were released from jail and they were messing around.”

“Well, and they met once. There was a big bunker there, they used to go there for potatoes. Well and then they stood face to face, a German and a Russian. My Father knew a few Russian words already so he said to him not to shoot that he had children. And the soldier said he had children as well. So he said: “Take some potatoes, I'll have some too and let's go.” I'm telling you, he hated the war, he hated Hitler. He came for example on holiday, they used to get some time off at harvest time so that they could help women. There were usually women farming here. So I still remember him taking his gun and throwing it into it saying: “Fucking war.” He always grumbled at that. Well and the Henlein guys who were there at that time, they came back but my father simply didn't.”