Bruno Mrovec

* 1934

  • “I looked out the window and saw Soviets in helmets walking crouched in the ditch. It was about three meters from us. Then they climbed up to the shore and there they (the Germans) were probably waiting for them with machine guns. In about twenty minutes they dragged the first wounded man. My brother and I were in the backyard and saw two people pulling him. They had Red Cross ribbons. The wounded man looked like a drunk whose legs were useless. And in no time they were carrying another. That was an Asian. He was shot through like he was running against a machine gun. The next day they came for him with a cart. And at night, when we slept in the cellar, the moaning of the wounded, it was impossible to sleep! They were in the chambers above us and there must have been a lot of them wounded.“

  • "Bombs started falling in no time. It was like an earthquake. And that was the first time I heard the women begin to pray the Lord's Prayer. Everything was shaking. We were waiting for a bomb to fall on us. It was a terrible feeling. Two bombs fell thirty meters from us right on the main road. They made deep funnels. And one fell to a neighbor five meters from us, but did not explode. If it exploded, we're done. The neighboring house would be destroyed and we buried. There was dirt everywhere from the bombs. And when we crawled back into the cellar, we heard a call upstairs, and it was the Soviets."

  • "Thousands of Russian prisoners went here. The front was already approaching, it was somewhere in Poland near Katowice. And thousands of captives were coming here. Poor people. It was horrible to watch them. It was snowing and some didn't even have shoes on. Their feet were wrapped in cloths. It was terrible. Mom prepared bread with cracknels, because there was nothing else, we waited for the moment when the guards did not see us and threw it to them. They were very hungry and fought for it. They mistreated them.“

  • “There was such a case with neighbors who had cows and worked with them in the fields. A neighbor who was three years older than me and his grandmother were arguing in Czech, or rather Moravian, about how to harness the cows. And a guy like that rode by on a bike, turned it around and yelled at them: 'How are you talking! One more time, then you'll see!' I experienced that directly. It was forbidden to speak Czech or dialect. It was quite unpleasant for us. “

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    Kobeřice, 21.09.2021

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Bombs were falling and women were praying the Lord‘s Prayer

Bruno Mrovec in 2021
Bruno Mrovec in 2021
zdroj: Memory of Nations

Bruno Mrovec was born on December 20, 1934 in Kobeřice in Hlučín area, Czechoslovakia. The parents were Catholics and belonged to the Moravians. He came from four children. His father Jan was a carpenter who went to work in Germany during the economic crisis. After the annexation of Hlučín area to the German Empire in 1938, he had to enlist in the Wehrmacht. Bruno well remembers the arrival of the front in Kobeřice in April 1945. The battles between the German army and the Red Army took place a few meters from their residence. The German soldiers in their house were replaced by Red Army men. After liberation, Hlučín once again became part of the restored Czechoslovakia. Bruno had to learn the Czech language, which he had forgotten during the war. He trained to be a bricklayer. He worked on construction sites all over Moravia. In 2021, he lived with his wife in Kobeřice.