Věra Chromcová

* 1936

  • "A single bomb fell down on the bakers´ and another one on the left side in the garden. That one did not explode. A little bit further down a half of the house was destroyed. I do not remember if there were any more bombs. I do remember three and those were real blasts. I believe it was later in the evening."

  • "About four agreed to ran away. We did not know but my father learnt later. He ran to my brother to the station and he had to come back then. Later he announced that he wants to flee together with another guy. That was on 1 May, 1948. They took a train somewhere and continued across the forest on foot. They met a lumberjack who spoke Czech, so they changed direction and finally got there. They were afraid of getting caught. My brother was in training to become an electro mechanician at Pospíšil. He was still studying and did not come to work, so the police came to ask for him. We said we did not know anything although we did."

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    Jeseník, 15.06.2017

    (audio)
    duration: 01:48:03
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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We stood at the rails waving goodbye

Věra Chromcová
Věra Chromcová
photo: archiv pamětnice

Věra Chromcová was born on 17 February 1936 in Česká Ves (German Böhmischdorf) as the youngest of three children of Josef and Sofie Chromcovi. While her mother belonged to the German natives, her father was of Czech origin coming from Litovel. Sometime in 1938 the family left Česká Ves and moved to a rental in Olomouc. Věra Chromcová was not certain but thinks that the reason was the father´s rectruitment to army during general mobilisation for the state defence on 23 September, 1938. A year later the family came back to Česká Ves. During WW2 a cousin of the witness, Rudolf Borke, joined the Wehrmacht, who fell during war. Uncle Rudolf Pohl spent several years in the Soviet prisoner camps. From the period of WW2, Věra Chromcová remembers Soviet prisoners from the camp in Česká Ves and also the bombing of the village on 12 December, 1944, during which two people died. All the mother´s relatives ended up in Bavaria after the war. In May 1948 also the brother Alfréd secretly  crossed the borders to Germany and the family has not seen him for long sisteen years. Since the year 1946 the witness has lived in Jeseník.