Marta Sturt

“We were interrogated threetimes, each month, they asked moreless the same questions, justin different ways, they took notes and compared them, they wanted to know whether we indeed wanted to escape or whether we were crooks who wanted to get abroad for free. They did not notify us in advance, they announced it with the loudspeakers: ‘Control! Come!’ Then there were health checks, they were also announced in the last minute. All women stood in one row, we had to undress and wait our turn. They did not have to do it in such a way, I don’t know why they did it this way.”

“The Church tried hard that the Czechs do not get Germanised, so that they speak nice Czech. That was a triumph, she gave me that book. [Original unclear] I made a beautiful presentation, I learned it by heart. I went to the board and recited it. Everyone listened and then they started clapping, they stood on the tables and shouted. All of them were glad that I showed that he talked nonsense. That was the best time of my life, that adulation. There were forty children who made noise, stamped their feet, they tried to be as loud as possible. Then, the Headmaster called me and told me: ‚You know, it is okay to express your opinion but you need to do it in a slightly different way.’”

“He told us there was a brook, that we need to cross it to get to the other side. We ran across a meadow, across that brook, and I fell in the water, obviously. Soon, we found a path and on that path, a German border guard stood. They let us go and told us that we would arrive to a building where they would sign us up, give us some food and send us to some sort of camp. So we did that but at that building, there was a lady who was a German from the Sudetenland who had been expelled from Czechoslovakia. She disliked Czechs. She gave us train tickets and some food, sandwiches, and that we need to hurry to the station to catch the train. We came to the station, there was no-one, not a single soul, no train. It was cold, we walked there and back and decided to eat the food. We unwrapped the bag, there were sandwiches with jam. We took a bite and there was salt in them, she put a layer of salt on the jam.”