Anna Derflerová

„I just want to tell you how it was in Czechoslovakia with the food. When the train stopped, like in the morning, everyone was given a piece of bread, small cube ob butter and some jam. For children there were little bags of sweets, no chocolate though. But what they gave the children...I’m not sure whether they gave us a cup of coffee too or if we cooked for ourselves. If I imagine how we lived there. We couldn’t light any fire in the car, right. There was a lady, she had this little drum thing. They called it stove. This lady also had a bag of logs and some cook dish, so we used to prepare some food on that too. For people like us, who traveled 8 days by train for the first time, it was new, we didn’t know what to take with us or how to prepare ourselves. I remember that they used to give us some lunches and some breakfast. And when we got to Zilina town, we got off the train and went to this train station restaurant where we had black coffee or regular coffee and something to eat too."

"There was this camp in Starsice town for those who were irresponsible. So these camps... And my husband had to enter as a soldier. He was wearing his army uniform and he had to go to Mimon town. There was the meeting point. There were people who owned a farm or ran their own business, you know what I mean...And so my husband being a soldier had to go to Strasice camp. He must have worked there every day. They used to build these huge buildings for officers there. In fact there were many soldiers and all of them were building these houses for their officers. I went to visit my husband there about three times so I so them working there. Some were helping with the construction, but my husband didn’t want to. He said he’d rather go to stone-pit break the stones. And so he did. Each morning like a prisoner. Too bad, what can I tell you? They put in his documentation that he is irresponsible. The worse thing was that he was fighting for his country, he struggled as a soldier. I stayed at home with our daughter for three years, we supported ourselves the best way we could and they would dare to call him irresponsible. But that’s all the local people’s job, you know? They wanted to get rid of us, so they could keep the whole house for themselves." "Right, and all this..." "Well my husband stayed there for four months and then they told him he doesn’t belong there." "So what you have told me now, all that is regarding the time after the war, right?" "Yeah" "So they put your husband it this camp during the communist regime?" "That’s right. In 1951"

"I forgot to tell you, it was really interesting when we were in Cierna town. A man from Prague came to us and said: ´Dear ladies, you will have a lunch now and then after dinner at 10pm we will leave here for Kosice town. We have to be there at 10am because there will be a delegation waiting for us.´ President Svoboda and some of his ministers came. There was this huge park in Kosice where we all went and president Svoboda had his speech there. Then it started to rain heavily all of a sudden. This man from Prague who talked to us on the train earlier also told us: ´Look, pick one of you from each car and she will accompany the delegation to Hotel Europe in Kosice after the parade is over. And he said: There will be lunch and some treats at the hotel. And they chose me. So they started to clean my coat and my shoes and showed me, where and how I will be sitting with the delegation. And then the pouring rain came and president’s hat was soaking wet...And some woman, she comes form Mirohost too and today she also lives here in Litomerice town like me, she asked me if I have my documents with me. Silly me! I ran as fast as I could back to the train station and into the train to get my documents. But before I came back to the park it was raining so much that they all were gone...So I didn’t go to any hotel with the delegation and told myself I’m a knucklehead. When I got later to this hotel everybody was having lunch. I remember they served these delicious Czech cuisine meal dumplings with pork and cabbage. I had to sit together with others because there were no more free places. There was this man, also from Mirohost village, who said: You, Derflerova where were you? ´ And I told him what happened and why I was late. And he said: ´If you could only see how beautiful it was there...´ All the things there, you can imagine. President Svoboda was speaking about the war, about our husbands and was wondering: And why are here so few women today? ´ Most of the chosen people for the delegation were men. And I just missed it."

"Did he tell you anything about his war activities?" "Yes, he did. He used to serve with infantry only and that was the worse place to be in war. Infantry. The soldiers walking along with the tanks there I think. Well, I don’t know. That’s what people said, that the soldiers were in the first lines and the Germans were standing on the hill and were shooting them. That’s why so many soldiers died there. Those from Volhynia, that is. And my husband was wounded from the bomb shrapnel. It hurt his head. He was given special medical care though and later all the injured soldiers, some of them were hurt badly, were transported to Poland. There were tents built which were used as hospitals. So my husband was in this hospital until he got well. All the soldiers, who were already feeling better, had to go back to Czechoslovakia to join their troop. Some officers came to visit this troop in Czechoslovakia and checked who is healthy enough to return to the front (to Slovakia) and who wasn’t well enough and could therefore stay with the troop on the base. And my husband was so lucky that he was chosen to go to Slovakia. They chose him to be a bridge guard. So he was standing on some bridge there. And when the officers came back to their troop to get the healthy ones, my husband was healthy enough, but he wasn’t there, because he was guarding this bridge. So when he returned later he could stay with his troop for good. And then the war was over." "So..." "So he was lucky not to go to front anymore."