He had twenty minutes to pack up, he didn’t visit Broumov again until fifteen years later
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Walter Hecht was born on 5 May 1932 in Velká Ves, Broumov region, into the German family of August Hecht and Berta, née Walzel. He had a younger sister Gitta. His father was wounded as a member of the German army in Denmark in May 1945. The witness experienced the arrival of the Soviet army in Broumov. In June 1945, he had to leave their flat with his mother and little sister as part of the wild removal and went to the Heidensteg camp in Broumov. After his release from the camp, he lived illegally until 1947 with his grandfather Albin Walzl in Martínkovice. In 1947, his mother applied for deportation. After a stay in the camp in Meziměstí, they were transported to Torgau an der Elbe in the Soviet zone. After secondary school he trained as a technical draughtsman and worked in a design office in Leuna. From 1952 to 1955 he studied in Roßwein and became an engineer. He spent two years in Marienberg, where he was asked by the GDR Stasi secret police to become their informer. He married in 1958 and had a son and a daughter. He worked for the German Railways and graduated from the Technical University of Dresden. He had been coming to Broumov since 1960. He participated in the publication of the periodical of the Broumov regional association Braunauer Rundbrief. In 2016 he received a commemorative certificate from the town of Broumov. In 2025 Walter Hecht was living in Leipzig.
