Dagmar Millerová

* 1951

  • „I was on my way from Mnichovo Hradiště. In Stražiště, there’s a narrow turn, one cannot see there well so there is a mirror but it was fogged. It was in October and there was a bit of snow on the edges of the road. I changed my gear to two and I drove along a wall, along a house which was there. And out of sudden, a ZIL lorry appeared in front of me. The ZIL lorries had such large hubs on the wheels which stuck out of the car profile and those ripped a hole in my car, from the front bumper to the back door. We had a Škoda 100. An officer got off the lorry and I wanted to call the police. The officer told me not to call anyone, they would be going back in a while, and they drove off. This was in 1986. There was a lady who saw the accident and she called the police. When the police arrived, they told me that I would never see the soldiers again. They wrote it up, the lady confirmed that she had seen it. I drove home and thought that I might wait for them because they would be certainly going back. So I waited on the shoulder of the road. I stopped them and the officer ran out of the car. He asked whether I had reported it to the cops. I said that yes, I had, but that I had not remembered the registration plate number. He begged me to let it be, that he would be deported to the Soviet Union. And that life would not be easy for him then. I agreed. He told me that he lived in Mimoň, introduced himself and promised to bring me anything I would need. This happened at a time when the soldiers started trading with the civilians.“

  • “When my girl was about eight and the boy was twelve. Yes, they are about four years apart. I remember it as if it happened yesterday, it was before the Hlavice pilgrimage and they came home and laughed in such a silly way so I asked what had they done. Nothing, nothing at all. The girl was chattier than the boy, I don’t know, I told them not to poke each other and to tell what had happened. They had found something and covered it with straw. What did you hide, where, what have you covered with straw? Erm, mom, by that pole that we have. There ‘s a pole on the border between our field and the co-op’s. Something was going on there so we went to have a look and there was an artillery shell so we hid it. I told her: I’ll beat you to pulp, Dáša, go home, Raduna, run to the neighbours and tell them to call the explosive techs. We did not have telephone at that time. It was that sort of practice cartridge, it probably wouldn’t go off. Maybe if they wanted to look inside. The explosive technician came, went to have a look, grabbed the shell, he had arrived in a pickup truck so he tossed it to the back. It wouldn’t probably kill us when he just tossed it like that but maybe if the children tried to take it apart.”

  • „In the middle of the night, there was one flash, second flash, there were always ten of them. The plane couldn’t be heard when in flight and then there were ten… because light is faster than sound. You know, the windows were shaking, the putty was falling out, we had even a wall crack once.”

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    Vystrkov, 21.10.2021

    (audio)
    duration: 02:19:42
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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Life with the occupant army in Ralsko: gasoline for a penny and pub torn down by a tank

Dagmar in 1954
Dagmar in 1954
photo: archiv pamětníka

Dagmar Millerová, née Panírková, was born on on the 13th of September in 1951 in Prague. Shortly after, she and her mother moved to to Čečkovice to Dagmar’s uncle. In 1954, her father returned from the army service and found a job in the Svijany brewery. Fron 1954, the family lived in a flat at the Svijany castle. Dagmar apprenticed as a glass cutter in Turnov in Liberec area. In 1972, she got married and moved to her husband’s family house in Vystrkov. Living near the Ralsko military area brought many incidents with the Russian garrison. There were rockets falling in the village or black market with gasoline. The witness never took any major interest in politics. Dagmar has two children, nowadays, she is retired and she is still living in Vystrkov.