Jana Gerlichová

"I remember the sirens, I remember we had to be in the cellar when there was an alarm and a warning. We all went to the cellar. When there was news that the front would go through Krnov, mom sent the two of us and Aunt Anna out of Krnov. We were at a parish house in a village and there I survived the front crossing. Krnov was bombed a lot. Our house and factory were hit. It was unfortunate that my mom didn´t obey the order to move out of Krnov. She had promised her husband that she would take care of the property, and she stayed in Krnov. By accident, on the way to the factory, where she wanted to look at the damage, a detonator exploded in front of her and burned her all over."

"Did you dare go to church, or did you hide it?" - "I kept it secret, I was ashamed of it. But I felt always so good in church that I somehow freed myself from the whole machinery I was living in. I had better mood and I was walking back home a metre above the ground, especially when I had been able to talk to a priest who was very important to me. When I became close to Vladimír Gerlich, who was a communist, he used to tell me not to worry about it, I became aware of young man´s soul beauty. It gave me so much strength… He was an angel on my way."

"My aunt came to a symposium with her husband - he was a doctor. This is how the expelled Germans met those who stayed here. Either in Dresden at a trade fair or in Prague. At least our family. It was rather official. But it was naive. Then the next year after the meeting, they monitored what letters I got and from where, what books I read, who my friends were, it was a fuss. Not only for me, but even the others who had nothing to do with it got involved. Any small sign of people getting together was watched closely. Moreover, if it was about nearly forbidden literature, but mostly there were things that were published in our country. It was worth for them to keep busy a lot of people watching me - an insignificant girl from the borderlands. The regime's fear that something was spreading somewhere was obvious."

"In Olomouc, when I was at the medical school, I met girls with the same difficulties, who also couldn´t study, and I got on that course. We had the same interests, we used to go to Prague for culture. We also arranged meetings, we called it exercisia, but we didn´t have a clue what it meant. We found a refuge in our cottage in Jeseníky to read religious literature. We spent Saturdays and Sundays there. At that time, Saturdays were not work-free yet, so [we had] only a few hours. We repeated it a few times because it was a nice meeting with the girls I got on well with. Later, in a hotel, I explained it to the aunt from West Germany who was interested, and I spoke about it enthusiastically, how we met and what we read. But there was an eavesdropping device in the hotel room, and then I was monitored for about a year."

"I wasn´t popular. I always had the braids soaked in the inkwell. They mocked me because I didn't speak Czech. I once came to school late because I didn't know what time the new lesson was. All the children got up and sang 'Little Ivan, what are you doing, the children are going to school, you're still in bed'. It wasn't pleasant. I don't know how I survived. I guess Aunt Anna took good care of us at home. "-" And you didn't have any contact with Czech children at all? "-" Certainly not in the first class, we didn't speak Czech. "-" And you probably didn't have German friends either? "- "Not at all. I knew two boys from those weaver families. But Aunt Anna didn't want to let them come at us. They were boys and they had to make bunkers, and Aunt Anna then had to clean it up. So I didn't succeed with the children. My aunt didn't want it, she couldn´t speak Czech, she couldn't talk to anyone. I didn't have a girlfriend in first class. It wasn't until second class that there was a hint of friendship, and then it got better.”