"Obviously, when the border was taken, the Germans took it, we couldn't stay there as Czechoslovaks. We had to back out of the borderlands and we all had to cram in somewhere. Us to Bohemia, the Moravians to Moravia. The peasants were the worst off. I saw and heard them when the peasant was pulling a horse with a few pieces of boxes or some tools. And they were withdrawing from the border area because they were rightly afraid of what the Germans would do to them. So they moved to Bohemia and Moravia. I don't know exactly how it was in Slovakia, probably similar. Then at night, suddenly the soldiers came and they loaded what was in the whole apartment without any care. Furniture and everything they could. A soldier drove us girls and my mother in a car. And all our furniture and we were taken to Ubušín, where it was to be put together and then we would see what was going to happen. So there was a long line of people leaving. The peasants went, the people who were taking their furniture went, and we went. It wasn't even possible for everybody to go just on one road, because the cows and the tired horses were going too slow and the cars were going fast. So we drove through the field for a while, then the road again for a while, then through the woods as we could. The soldiers took us to Ubušín. There they put everything down and went back because there was already fighting on the border. The First Republic ceased to exist and it never came into being again. That was the end of the First Republic."
"My mother used to go to the Gestapo. First of all, we brought food there. It was either my mother or me. That was always only on Sundays. We had to tell the Gestapo man who was on duty that I was bringing food. And he usually said, 'Der braucht nichts. He doesn't need anything.' And I went away. Sometimes we'd try to change the laundry or something. In the Kounice dorms, where they were ahead, it was kind of looser, I guess. But then they were in the camp Pod Kaštany. Those were just kind of wooden houses, of course, enclosed. And the Gestapo were really mean there. Really. They just shouted. And they never took anything from me when I brought food there. This camp was supposedly still there not long ago, but I'm not sure. Otherwise, they were originally in the Kounice dormitory. Of course, all the students had to leave the dorms. And it was stricter there. I guess that's where the soldiers were locked up before too, it was old, otherwise, it was empty for many years. So they were in these little cabins, and I think it was kind of looser there anyway. Of course, only until the Heydrich rampage. After that, it was all destroyed by the Germans. During the Heydrich rampage, there were quite annoyed."
"The Russians have arrived already, they came from the east and stayed put. There was King's Field below them and above King's Field on the other side there was a big plain and there were gardens. And as they were coming, they suddenly found that they had to stop because they would fall down on these gardens. So they started shooting at King's Field from the top. Our house took two hits. But it didn't catch fire, the whole roof didn't fall off, just the back of the house. Those were houses with a ground floor and a first floor. For families, I'd say. That was a whole series of houses for families. And ours took a hit, but the roof stayed on. Now imagine, when I got married, my mother gave me a feather quilt, and I ripped it open when I was going to wash the feathers, everything was done at home then, and in it, there were two rifle bullets, the pointed kind. They were stuck in my eiderdown, in the duvet, and there they stayed since. But nobody was hurt though."
Milena Svorová, née Matějů, was born on 8 December 1926 in Mukachevo, Subcarpathian Rus (when part of Czechoslovakia), to parents Matylda and Adolf Matějů. Her father, a former legionnaire, served there as an officer in the Czechoslovak Army. Her family lived in the so-called Czech houses. In 1931, little Milena started attending a Czech school in Mukačevo, but shortly afterward the whole family moved to Znojmo because her father Adolf Matějů was transferred there. Later, her father became a commander of the State Defence Guard (SOS) battalion for the Znojmo region. He guarded the state border and took part in building a defensive line of light fortifications. Milena perceived the growing tension between the Czech and German-speaking inhabitants, which manifested itself in the lives of the children as well. After the Munich Agreement, the Matějů family had to flee Znojmo for their father‘s home village. Afterward, they moved to Brno. After the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1939, Adolf Matějů became involved in the anti-Nazi resistance organisation Defence of the Nation. However, the activities of the resistance fighters were exposed and her father was arrested by the Gestapo on 30 September 1941. During the Heydrich rampage on 21 June 1942, Adolf Matějů was executed in the courtyard of the Kounice Hall of residence. During the war, she studied at a grammar school, and from 1944 to 1945, she had to join forced labour under German rule in Dolní Loučky near Tišnov. After graduation, she studied French and Latin at Masaryk University. During her studies, she worked as a teacher. She taught in several schools throughout Moravia, mainly in the border region. She devoted her whole life to teaching. In 2022, she lived in Karlovy Vary.
Father Adolf Matějů, Legionnaire, Czechoslovak officer, commander of the battalion of the State Defence Guard for the Znojmo region, and member of the Defence of the Nation, was executed on 21 June 1942.
Father Adolf Matějů, Legionnaire, Czechoslovak officer, commander of the battalion of the State Defence Guard for the Znojmo region, and member of the Defence of the Nation, was executed on 21 June 1942.
Father Adolf Matějů, Legionnaire, Czechoslovak officer, commander of the battalion of the State Defence Guard for the Znojmo region, and member of the Defence of the Nation, was executed on 21 June 1942
Father Adolf Matějů, Legionnaire, Czechoslovak officer, commander of the battalion of the State Defence Guard for the Znojmo region, and member of the Defence of the Nation, was executed on 21 June 1942
