I hid in the birdhouse from the Russians
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Herta Vladařová, née Jüstelová, was born on September 24, 1929 in Staré Lublice near Opava as the third out of nine children. The father worked as a gunner in a quarry, my mother took care of a household and a small farm. After the birth of her last child, her mother suffered a stroke and Herta had to take care of her younger siblings. Herta could not attend secondary school because the family did not have the money to let more children study. After the occupation of the Sudetenland by Nazi Germany, the Jüstels had problems with the local Nazis in the village. At the end of the war, onc again they were afraid of approaching Soviet soldiers. Herta and her sisters first fled with retreating German soldiers, then hid with their Czech cousin. The Jüstels avoided the expulsion as Germans, because his father was recognized as an anti-fascist and, moreover, had an irreplaceable position as a gunner in a local quarry. After the war, Herta worked as a cook. In 1957, she married Josef Vladař and they had three children together.
