Helena Potočková

“In 1945, after the end of the war in May and October, the borders were open and those who wished so were free to go to Germany. The others were then deported later on. I chose to stay but life wasn’t easy afterwards for me. I had to work for a Czech landlord who made my life a hell. I was constantly being called the worst names. I wouldn’t wish this even my worst enemy. In 1945, I was seventeen years old. That landlord, he didn’t have me registered and thus he didn’t have to give me any money, so I worked for free there, I fed the cows and I worked there as a maid. It was in Harlas, nearby Cheb. Well, when I couldn’t stand it there any longer, I went to the chairman of the National Committee, today, it would basically be the mayor. There were only two farms in Harlas. And he could see that I toiled hard there. I had to work late and they didn’t even give me adequate food there. So he told that guy - he was then about twenty-five years old and I was seventeen – that I was supposed to run away and stay at their place. He told him to bring me down to the village in the evening.”

“He then accused me of putting pieces of broken glass into the trough for the cows to eat, even though I didn’t even have access to the trough and I would never do something like that in my life, to hurt an animal just because the owner is a bad man. Well, that chairman vouched for me, that he can’t complain about me and that I'm really hard-working. That former employer came to me and said that we could do something about it and that he could drop the charges. But I said that I hadn’t done anything. The mayor saw him drumming it into me and he went to him and talked to him. He then finally told the presiding judge that it wasn’t true. So he had to give me some money for libel. But as I was of German nationality, it passed to the state. Nevertheless, I was really happy that he finally had to admit that it had been a lie.”