Waldemar Richter

* 1936

  • „There in Bohosudov, the commanders did not even dare. There were thirty-two of us in the room and there were two of us who had not been to prison. There were blokes who had served four or five years in the Foreign Legion. So the commanders did not dare to be too brash. There was a type who, when we stood down in the courtyard, he grabbed a knife and threw it right into the crossing [in the window frame] where the window was. If one was a bit prone to this… I could have become such a scoundrel as well, it was horrible. It was almost scary. The worst thing was when they had to go somewhere out there [outside of the barracks] to do some digging or field work. I got to guard six of those guys. We’d walk a hundred metres past the barracks’ gate and they just ran away and went to a pub. I told them: ‘Do whatever you want but when we’re returning to the barracks, you will be all back!’”

  • "Down from here where the bottom path is, an old locksmith lived. He was an old guy, he was almost eighty, he had such a small workshop. Czechs went there and they found an old gun dating back to times of sharpshooters’ clubs. But the gun did not work any more. They still chased that guy out, they went and brought three or four horse-drawn carriages and got into every house in our street. We had to go into one room and they grabbed whatever they liked. Mom still kept some of dad’s civilian clothes, we had not known about him for about two years, even whether he’d be still alive. She wanted to hide them where the house is, to an alcove where a wheelbarrow was always kept so she put the clothes in a sack and behind that wheelbarrow. They found them anyway so it did not help anything. What was worse, a few days later, we went to Šenov and there was a bloke walking in dad’s clothes.”

  • „In 1945 when the German army was here, they had a telephone central in our house and ammunition was stored in the yard. When the soldiers left, they abandoned the ammo here. My mom and aunt lived here and they were worried that when the Russkies would come, they would blow everything up and that would be it. So the women picked the crates with grenades and tossed them in the pond. They floated for a while, then the crates opened and turned upside down. They were there for a long time, for several years. Then they fished the pond out and the grenades were still sticking out of the mud.”

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    Velký Šenov, 11.02.2022

    (audio)
    duration: 01:37:53
    media recorded in project Příběhy regionu - Ústecký kraj
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They took my sister’s doll, I saw a bloke wear dad’s clothes

Waldemar Richter, 1960's
Waldemar Richter, 1960's
photo: archiv pamětníka

Waldemar Richter was born on the 6th of January in 1936 in Velký Šenov. After the end of WWII, the German speaking Richter family were assigned for expulsion from Czechoslovakia but meantime, father of the family returned as a former prisoner of war and got a job in the local factory. Due to this, the Richter family was allowed to stay. Their lives were not easy, though, nobody spoke a single word of Czech language, they had decreased food rations and there were animosities from the Czechs. After finishing basic school, Waldemar wished to become a forester but at that time, he had no nationality and due to the family background, he would not get to any school anyway. He thuis apprenticed as a cabinet maker and worked as an unqualified worker. In 1956, he had to serve in the army in the work units where he had to do all sorts of odd jobs including farm work and livestock care. Later, he got a job as an excavator operator and then he worked in a stone quarry until his retirement. In 2022, he lived in Velký Šenov.