"The Americans came first. They came early in the morning, only about three tanks. They had to withdraw in the evening, because then the Russians were already here. There was a demarcation line by that Central Hotel, by the Jewish cemetery, and there were Americans at the back of the former playground. So, the Russians were here."
Do you remember the arrival of the Americans?
"They were mostly black. As children, we were blown away. But it was quiet. There were two tanks at the station and two in front by the bars. It was calm. They were here all day and had to withdraw in the evening. As you go up to Nova Ves, there were also Americans there. The demarcation line was at our station. A little further on, as you go to Chodov, there were Czechs. We called it the Red Guard."
"Back then, they did some transport to Buchenwald. They opened some factory where they put numbers on rifles. Thanks to that, the father got there too. He survived the concentration camp there. We didn't know if he was alive for half a year, we had no messages. Only then did the dispatcher tell my mother that a transport would be going from Buchenwald through Bečov so that she wouldn't tell anyone that it was going at half to one in the morning. Mom didn't want to go alone, so I went with her. There was a tiny light by those bars. Otherwise, everything about the war was obscured. That train was really going at 0:30, but we didn't see anyone. The next day we found out, it was rumored that four prisoners escaped from that transport, jumped out when the train came out of the tunnel. My mother and I often went to the forest for pine cones. The next day we drove with my brother, and at the top, as you go to Nova Ves, at the chapel at the edge of the forest, we collected pine cones. There were suddenly four prisoners. They were probably as scared as we were, but they kept going. Mom said to run after them and give it to them. And tell them not to go down to Mariánskolázeňská Road. There was a gamekeeper´s house and there were convicts. Although they had a great time there. I ran after them, grabbed one of them by the sleeve and told them. So that they don't go down. The escaped prisoner patted me and said: 'We know everything.' I don't know where they went after that."
“As my mother married Czech, our relatives didn’t talk to us. That lasted through the whole war period. We, children didn’t really care so much, but they let us know a lot, that we were registered as Czechs. And after war my father found a document at the town hall register, that my younger brother was meant to become German and my mother and I would be sent to work in Austria. And after 1945 they considered us a mixed marriage again. That was bad too, when I went to school I could not speak much Czech. And the teacher yelled at us and called us Germans. That was not at all nice. We didn’t know for a long time whether we would be displaced, my mum and brother as we got no news about our father.”
“After 1938 the father had to leave to Pilsen and was locked up in 1942. He spent half a year in Theresienstadt and then Buchenwald. We knew nothing about him. He returned with a typhus infection and had to go to hospital. Finally they released him, but he had to drink goat mild regularly, which helped him. Of course he suffered from the effect of a concentration lager and died soon, at the age of 58 years.”
„Death march went through Bečov twice. Once a women transport, who slept over in three barns above the station. And men transport didn’t even stop in our town. Two French women stopped at my place after war, they were Jews, who were part of the march though Bečov. At the time they walked together with their mummy, who died near here. It was a terrible look at the march; men´s had Americans and English walking right at the back and they had their stuff loaded up on carriages. They had some clothing tool. But Russians, they were the poorest. No clothing, totally skinny. Just a horrible view. Several of them also died here. They buried them at the playground and after war the Germans had to exhume them and now they lie at the local cemetery. There was over ten of them. The locals tried to help them; they brought food to women, who slept in the barns. Some of them even ran away and hid in the forest. At night they gathered in the town, where they sometimes got a nibble to eat. I don’t know where they disappeared then.”
Anna Rajserová was born in 1933 in a Czech German family in Bečov above Teplá and belongs to a couple of original inhabitants of the Western-Bohemian town. In autumn 1938 the father as a Czech employee had to leave the territory of the Sudetenland and returned back to Pilsner. Here he was later arrested and at the end of war be was imprisoned in a concentration camp Buchenwald. The family was going through difficult times. The mother was left alone with little Anna and her brother. As she got married to a Czech, she received no support. On top her German nationalistic relatives, who remembered them only after war before the displacement. Meanwhile little Anna with her mother and brother lived in Bečov. War events ceased to avoid otherwise peaceful town in spring 1945. Train transports were more often coming past and the town became a target of allies „depthers“. After war most German inhabitants had to be displaced. The same was intended for Anna´s family, but luckily her father returned from a concentration camp and everyone stayed together. Anna Rajserová lived in Bečov and her memories reflect essential historical events in the area of Czech German territory. She died on April 1, 2023.
