Helmut Kopetzky

"Many people were received with disapproval, the locals had no way to defend themselves. It was the Americans' decision, because there was an American post-war zone, so they wanted to provide accommodation for all the displaced people, but many local people did not receive the newcomers enthusiastically. In our case, however, it was a truly Christian family. I was skeptical about Christianity being just customary, but these people were really living it. They tried to beautify the rooms in our attic as much as they could. We really only inhabited small attic spaces, we saw tiles on the roof, and there were two small rooms underneath. We lived here for six years - my mother, my grandparents and myself. You can imagine that there were often arguments, usually over my upbringing, which everyone wanted a say in."

"A relative of my present wife's family, who was a school principal in Czechoslovakia and later in Hesse, managed to pack a violin. It was a Czech manufactory violin, but Czech violin makers used to be famous, and many settled in West Germany. And I learned the violin, I still have this old violin from Moravia and sometimes I play it when I play music with my wife. Strangely enough, the violins left at that time too, other valuables were confiscated, but I think the musical instruments were not so valuable, more the gold and silver, which was taken from people already in Šumperk, as everybody says. Of course, that's how it is, people are helpless in such cases."

"My own first memory is of sitting on the potty I was put on during a train ride, with adults sitting around me on the luggage like I was in some kind of amphitheater, looking down at me to see if I had done my potty task. Because I was so young, it would seem that I should have cared, but I didn't. I found it very embarrassing. Adults used to go to the toilet in the stations, which on the German side were not damaged and had been preserved from the war, and where makeshift latrines had been built. There were whole long aisles of latrines, because there were 1200 people on each train. That's how the Americans set it up - 1,200 people per transport in a certain number of cars. I think the total was 1,500 train sets that crossed from East to West in 1946. There were these latrines, just sort of wooden walls, you could see inside, so everybody was ashamed, because most of the Germans being moved out were from better circumstances. There were people who had a nice bathroom and other amenities at home, and now they had to squat there, but they had no other choice."