Erich Bortlík

* 1928  †︎ 2022

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People should forgive each other and think about life more

Erich Bortlík
Erich Bortlík
photo: Post Bellum / duben 2016

Erich Bortlík was born on 5 June 1928 in Hať in the Hlučín area. His father was a worker in a chemical plant in Ostrava while his mother stayed at home and looked after the children and a small farm. Following the annexation of the Hlučín region by the Third Reich in the fall of 1938, Erich witnessed the arrival of the German army. All of the men and older boys from his family were gradually drafted to the Wehrmacht in the course of WW II. None of them had returned. Erich’s father died at the Western Front while his brother went missing in the Soviet Union. In January 1945 Erich himself started his training. In April he was captured by the Red Army and deported him via Romania and the Black See to a POW camp in Russia, between Novorossiysk and Krasnodar. He worked there in a joiner’s workshop before release in December 1945 after which he returned home to Hať. From 1950 till 1953 he unterwent military service with the Auxilliary Technical Battalions. For all of his professional life he worked in chemical plants in Ostrava. He died on October 16, 2022.