Leo Cieslík

“We were actually Germans and we simply did not want to accept, or apply for, the Polish citizenship, so it all began anew. For one year I actually had to work for free. We worked on ruined bridges, and we did so without being paid. For free.” “And how did you live then? How did the family manage?” “The only thing I remember was that we had a little grinder. And we would grind our flour on it ourselves, and then bake it on the stove, without any oil, just plain. And I still cannot understand how we managed to survive this way.“ “How many of you were there, I mean how many children?” “There were five of us.“

“My father had been unemployed for seven years before Hitler came to power.” “And after that jobs became available?” “That’s right, since 1933, when Hitler seized power, my father really did get a job then.”

“So in 1949 I was hired as a milling-machine operator in the Svit factory. And in the course of four years I was promoted and awarded the title of a Shock-worker – got a certificate for it, for I was simply able to work hard. And I was also evaluated as the best worker in my field, as a milling-machine operator. And in five years I was promoted to a technical position, as a quality controller. Then I was working as a team leader for about 10 years, and 27 years as a manager of the workshops. And then I retired.“

“And at four in the morning they deported us to the railway station, and on top of that, they confiscated any valuables these people had on them. Each of us got a half-slice of bread and they loaded us onto open wagons.” “These were cattle trucks?” “No, open, roofless wagons. And the journey from Blatná took about three days and three nights. And we meanwhile …. children died, and many adults have not survived either. I just saw that corpses were thrown out of the wagons, and this way we eventually arrived to Opava.”