"They came to tell us that we would have to be ready to leave in 24 hours. So we prepared all our things and a car took us to the train station in Javorník. And from there we were transported to Bedihošť. It took two days to get there and we all travelled on a freight train, together with the cattle. Even kids, for example my sister’s little twins. We hadn’t even moved out of our house in Hoštice and they were already there plundering it."
"One of them was from the municipal office and the other was from the police. They took me away to Buková, near to Bernartice. I was 16 years old and they allowed me to go home to take some things with me. I lived here in Bílá Voda with one family. I stayed there over the week since there was no bus connection home. So I grabbed a few things and they took me home to Hoštice where I could talk to my parents, tell them what happened and take some other things as well with me. No one knew where I would be going, I didn’t know it either. I was taken to some family to take care of their children - it was on a farm. The housewife was expecting a baby and took care of the older ones. They went to school already, so I had to prepare breakfast, get them ready to school and so on."
"It was there that we experienced how they tore it down. We had been there already. It was around 1960 or 1961. They tore down this house on the hill. There were stones flying all over our roof from the explosion. A lot of houses were torn down like that."
"First we arrived at the train station in Prostějov. We met young Germans there who were around my age and were also to be expulsed. We had written to them beforehand so they were already waiting for us. The stable boy from the farm arrived with a tractor and took us where we were supposed to work and live. We had a little room, and my sister and I had to sleep on the floor. We stayed there for over a year. They promised us better accommodation and eventually they gave us two rooms, a kitchen and a bedroom, which was actually a sty that had been rebuilt for us. That’s where we lived after that."
Hedvika Smržová, née Hedvika Salomon, was born in 1930 in Horní Hoštice (Ober-Gostitz) in the region of Jesenicko. Both her parents were German, originating in the region around Javorník underneath the Rychlebské Hory Mountains. With a few exceptions, only inhabitants of German nationality lived in this region until 1946, when they were expelled to Germany. Her native village and the whole region have never again been resettled to their original state as it was before the war. Many villages and settlements therefore remained completely desolate and later in the 1960’s they were demolished. Salomon’s family was among those few that were not expelled and were allowed to stay in Horní Hoštice. In 1948, they were forced to move to Bedihošť near Prostějov where they lived in very tough conditions until 1950. In that year, they could return to their native region but their house had already been occupied. Therefore they were given another farm in Bílá Voda, where Mrs. Smržová still lives with her husband today. Hedvika Smržová died on 23 August 2019.
