Margita Beranová

“Well that´s what I wanted to say. The Russians went to work under supervision, there were soldiers. But the French did not, they went freely, they could come in as they liked. And they also, when an air raid was announced, they ran out in the forests. And the night of 20th April, 1945they also ran outside and we wanted to do the same. But then the sirens in the station announced it was over and nothing was going to happen. So we came back. But those French... We returned and looked out of the window and they were throwing down small trees, it was called like that, it was lighting up places, where to throw bombs. And the air raid was targeting Poldovka and the railways and Chomutov was a large crossroads at the time. As we ran down the cellar fast. We only had our door blasted out, all windows broken under pressure as the bombs were falling. But many French were still on their way back and they got killed there.”

“It was the way, that if they knew that they belonged to the SS, they shot them straight away at the playground. I know it from my father. And they intended to hand over the rest to the Russians. But they planned to do it somewhere in Moldova. So the march went on there. Who didn’t make it got shot on the way. For real. Just like the Germans did; exactly the same they did during war. But then they came and the Russians refused them. So they had to go back to Záluží. In Záluží they worked and were accommodated. My mum went twice on foot from Chomutov to Záluží, as a German she had a white tape and could not take a bus or a train or anything. So she went on foot bringing food to daddy, somehow threw it over the fence. And then his father was running the errands to prove daddy was actually anti- fascist, altogether daddy stayed there for three or four months, before it got processed and they let him go. But others stayed even longer. So I say it the way it actually was back then.”