Marie Zajíček

My name is Marie Zajicek and I was born in Duda on the 9th November 1927. It was during the Czech times. As you know, a lot of changes had happened here in Hlučínsko. At that time it was the Czech Republik and there were private German schools. My father who worked in Germany used to tell us: 'They don't have work for us here, you will all go to the German school and learn German'. At home we only spoke German. My brother and me went to the German school. I even went to Opava to the convent school in the second year. And than, in 1935 or 1936 Benes banned the German schools in Hlučínsko. The teachers had to leave and we went to the Czech school. Only in Hlučínsko? Hlučínsko had 38 towns and villages. So in the 4th and 5th year I went to the Czech school. We all had to go there, because they closed all the private German schools.

… the Russians caught us on the street near Vysoke Myto. I could not understand what had happened to us after that. For me each person is a human being no matter if they are Czechs, Germans or English. But the people there, the Czechs spit on us and threw stones at us. I could not understand what was happening. Why people were acting like that. And after that on the 9th of May on an afternoon at half past four they took us to an internment camp near Holice. It used to be a camp for sport before. We were sleeping on the ground there. There were a lot of different people, German soldiers and also ordinary people, women, children and men. We were all sleeping on the ground. In the night came the Russians, I can remember that we could not sleep at all, it was impossible because of the nerves, we were thinking about whatever could happen to us. They came and picked out the girls. One man came also to me and he shook me because he thought that I was asleep, but I wasn't. 'Come with me' he told me. 'But I don't have shoes' I replied. He left and brought me shoes. But after that I had enough courage to run away from him, I went to a little room where there were eight or ten soldiers. I excused myself and told them that a Russian had come to take me, but I would not go with him. He was standing there at the door. I started to speak Czech altough I didn't speak well because I couldn't pronounce the R properly and that is a serious mistake. But I told them that I wouldn't go with this Russian and they should rather shoot me right there and write to my parents in Bolatitz, I gave them the adress. And that was all. And after that the Russian left.