Josef Schubert

* 1933

  • "That was the so-called wild resettlement. There was also my grandma's aunt. She also came, she had lived in Gurschdorf. And as a child I was directly at the transport. Also when they passed by, I was there. The people at that time were gathered practically in a lime-kiln in Setzdorf. And I've been bringing food to my aunt across to a lime-kiln in Setzdorf every day. At the departure of the train I was right there, I've watched it happen. And they were open cattle trucks. People around had brought straw and sacks in so that they could sit around a bit. And open cattle trucks then sometimes passed through the entire Czech Republic. They are said to have been thrown with stones in Prague and many other places, they have passed through. We only heart such things."

  • "Yes, and as a child. Back then. We have also done many pranks. At the end of war a lot of Wehrmacht went through the village. For three days the soldiers were passing through here. There was ammunition, explosives, supplies and everything. And as children we handled a lot then. My grandfather once caught me, where I wanted to take a hand garnet. This was the only time I had been beaten. We've all been lucky to have survived all this. "

  • "And as they were coming, they checked the houses. Two of them came to our house. And they went straight to grandma. And they knocked her on the shoulder. "Nemam strach, you do not need to be afraid." I had a small accordion that one of them took and played. We have only the best memories. With us there were no attacks, nothing more. Such a contrast to all messages that have heard before; about rapists and so on. But they were very humane. There was nothing happening here."

  • "I was with my grandmother in the field. Then someone came from the municipality and said I had to go tomorrow, as I'll go to Germany. But at that time no one believed it. With my grandparents I was like their own child. As the grandpa then came back home from the forest he was right in the community. My grandpa was also a bit more temperamental. He absolutely did not want to give me away. Quite understandably, o course, as I was only 14 years. Yes, and there he was in the community and then he had loud strips behind on the hump. Have him beaten. " "In Setzdorf?" " Yes, then he came and said. They want to pick you up tomorrow in the morning, but you're not going. We will not give you. They came. With a bulldog and followers. And my grandfather did nothing. We will not give the boy. He must not leave. Then he put the gun on his chest and said, "In an hour when I'm not finished, he'll shoot him." Then we cleared everything up in an hour. I sat on the crate. Fredy can still remember well. Every time he says, "I know exactly how you drove by." At the end of Niesnersberg, where you go right to Vápenná, to Setzdorf, I looked back again. Now I have to go ahead, but I will come back again."

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    Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, 17.03.2017

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    duration: 01:13:10
    media recorded in project Memories for the Future
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Do not worry about the things you can you not change.

Portret.jpg (historic)
Josef Schubert
photo: Fotoalbum des Zeitzeugen, das aktuelle > Dominik Michálek

Josef Schubert was born on 20 October, 1933 in Niesnersberg (Nýznerov). When he was quite small, his mother had an accident. That was why his grandparents raised him. He had another five younger siblings. Joseph was very conscious of the end of the world war. He was lucky to survive, as he was playing with ammunition. In July 1945, he witnessed a departure of the open wagons of the wild expulsion. In September 1946 he was interned in the Muna Niklasdorf (Mikulovice) and separated from his parents. They left, and he stayed with his grandparents. On 28 August, 1947, someone from the municipality of Sittendorf (Vápenná) came to force him with a pistol to go to Germany. It was a transport from the Red Cross. The transport was on the road from 13th September. In Germany he came to Neumarkt in the Oberpfalz and there he finally apprenticed his dream profession - an electrician. He got married in 1958 to Maria Moser. They have two children. Josef often travels back home each year after the turn.