Johann Löffelmann

I only know that in May 48 there was a directive saying they wouldn’t be guarding the borders for the next fortnight or so and that’s when we moved out. We couldn’t bring everything with us, so we headed out with two lorries full of all the property we could fit and went to Neukirchen. Everything was unloaded at the border and the brother of my father-in-law, who was a stonemason from Neukirchen, loaded it all up on an ox-drawn-cart and temporarily stored it in Neukirchen. From there we went to the camp in Furth im Wald. On foot.

My mother and sister were made to work at a warehouse according to the motto: when three are eating, two have to work. The sales manager could see it was too difficult for my sister, and so she was sent out to empty farms in the countryside to gather currants, gooseberries and apples. Every day they drove her to a different spot with just a bottle of water and a piece of bread. Sometimes she was very scared. She was startled at every noise. Once she followed the sounds and went inside an empty house. There she saw scattered flour, food and destroyed furniture. Occasionally a cupboard door would come loose or a cupbord wall and that’s what made those noises.

I can still remember when we came back again, they brought a whole cart-full of German books and postcards to be destroyed. Us children jumped up on the cart and took some of the books down. Till this day I have three of those books with a German name inside. I still own those as well as several postcards. For us children that was something interesting. Then they destroyed it all.

Once we went for a walk in Nýrsko, my mother, sister and me. We walked past one of the villas and our carpet was hanging outside on the frame. And through the open window my sister or mother could even see our furniture. My sister was livid, she wanted to go inside at all costs and take that carpet. She said: “This is our carpet here, I’ll go get it, I’ll take it!” and Mum then told her: “That doesn’t belong to us any more, we’re strangers here. Leave it alone, they’ll just lock you up.”