Květuše Tůmová

"My mum said that her dad had to tear down their house with a pickax. Tears were running down his face; all of them wept. They moved to Hineška. They would've probably never gone to Bohemia, had they not been forced to leave their homes. They then came over to get a house and a job. My mum never returned; she recalled her dad destroying the house and weeping. I was there only once so I know where they had lived but I never went under Hineška because there was nobody to show me the place they were expelled to. They went for better life. After WW II. my grandpa started working at steelworks in Hrádek u Rokycan. Something fell in his eye and he lost it. I don't remember him well; he was already very ill back then and died when I was seven years old. I feared him because he kept shouting at us. My mum said that there were good people in Rokycany and that they had good relations. We moved to the street where today, Kaufland is located. The house is no more. The street was called Na Práchovně. All of the people knew us there and respected my parents. Later, it wasn't so. The town used to be small and everyone knew each other. There was nothing around here."

"One day, the Germans came to the village. They arrested all of the people except for the children and the elderly. First, they drove them to Sabinov and locked them in a prison. There were many Romani people from other villages as well, it was crammed. My mum said that she couldn't move the whole night. In the morning - without food or drinks - they dragged them to the station, put them into railway cars and drove them someplace far. I can't estimate how long it could've taken to Plaveč. They still needed to walk some five or seven kilometers to the camp. The living conditions there were horrible. Russian were also imprisoned there, getting beaten all the time and left without food. When the Romani people had some food, they secretly shared. The Roma were digging trenches. There was one terrible German officer whom everyone feared. He would rape young girls, sometimes in front of the eyes of their family members. He wanted my mum too, but they managed to hide her in a heap of hay. When a German commander arrived, a Romani man who knew some German, took the courage to tell him what was happening to the girls. By miracle, that guy was posted away. My mum said it got a bit better then but she hadn't stayed for long. She was there for about three months, planning an escape. Sometime, she was allowed to go beg for some food in the village. My parents decided that when they'd go dig trenches, they'd excape. Having no shoes, they covered their feet in straws. She told me they only walked at night through the forests. I can't imagine how they found their way home."