Reported by: Karl Volkmar Report of September 7, 1946

I was an apprentice in my father's blacksmith forge in Schwarzwasser. On April 4, 1946 two gendarmes came and criticized the format of our Czech business sign. We told them that we would have a larger one made. Then they went and inspected the crane standing outside the smithy. When I saw them there, I pointed out the window at them and said to the second apprentice, "they're standing over there." The two gendarmes came into the workshop and wanted to know what I had said. When I told them, they took me with them to the gendarmerie, where I was terribly maltreated. They beat me with rubber truncheons to the point where I had to vomit.

 

Report No. 317

 

Reported by: Lothar Latzel Report of September 7, 1946 (Schwarzwasser-Freiwaldau)

One Sunday in early February this year, a drive belt and some carpenter's tools allegedly went missing from an abandoned quarry. To this day I don't know any of the details. The following Tuesday five boys were taken to the gendarmerie. I was one of them. I am 13 years old, the others were 14. Several gendarmes asked us if we knew anything about the theft. None of us knew anything. Now we were dreadfully boxed about the head, and then we had to stand facing a wall for several hours. Then we were locked up, separately. I was locked into the washroom. Around 1:30 in the afternoon they fetched us out again, and proceeded to beat us alternately all afternoon long. We also had to beat each other, and to do 100 squats until we were totally exhausted. In the end I was thrown head-first against the wall by one of the gendarmes. Around 6:30 we were sent home, after first being threatened that we would be sent into the concentration camp if we failed to find the thief within two days. I was totally disfigured by all the abuse and had to stay in bed for four days.

 

Report No. 318

 

Reported by: Max Ehrlich Report of August 23, 1946 (Schwarzwasser-Freiwaldau)

At about 9:30 p.m. on August 16, 1946, the last evening before I had to report to the resettlement [expulsion] camp, I heard some whistled signals in the street, followed quickly by the sounds of violent blows, and cries for help. 67-year-old Franz Gärtner, who was also to go to the resettlement camp the next day, had been on his way to say farewell to a friend, and had been attacked and severely maltreated by a Czech. The next day Gärtner's face was totally suffused with blood and covered in bandages. His body also bore bruises where the Czech had kicked him. Consequently, Gärtner was detained in the resettlement camp until the abuse he had suffered was no longer visible.

 

Setzdorf

 

Reported by: Emma Latzel Report of August 23, 1946

I was put to agricultural labor for the Czech farmer Folter in Setzdorf from approximately July 15, 1946 until August 15, and while I was there I was badly maltreated. As consequence of a past compound fracture of the forearm I have no strength in my left hand. Therefore I could not milk with my left hand. For this reason the farmer beat me five times, with his fist, with bull whips and with a rake. When my sister and my brother-in-law came to the farm to take me to the doctor, because I have stomach trouble, they were stoned and chased from the farm, and I was beaten. 16-year-old Rudolf Geier, who worked there as stableboy, was also repeatedly beaten, which I witnessed. He was beaten with a whip and an iron chain, and once he was hit on the chest with an iron hammer. I received no pay for my work.

 

Sörgsdorf

 

Reported by: Gustav Keller Report of August 15, 1946

During the night of August 11th, 1945, I was arrested and taken to the office of the parish council in Sörgsdorf. There I was asked for information about German anti-tank weapons. I was unable to give any information. I had also not been a member of the "Volkssturm" [last reserve, see previous reports]. Then I had to lie naked on the floor while a Czech by the name of Mischka threw 10 or 15 knives at me, which stuck in the floor to the right and left of me. As I was still unable to give information about the anti-tank weapons, they put a wire around my head and twisted it until it cut deeply into my skin and I lost consciousness. After this I was released. But 14 days later I was again arrested and held in the camp at Jauernig for nine months. Like all the others I was severely maltreated during my stay in the camp.

 

Spillendorf

 

Reported by: Maria Kühnel Report of August 2, 1946

From August [1945] until April [1946] I was forced to do farm labor for a Czech administrator. As a consequence of tonsilitis I have had a chronic kidney infection and abnormally high blood pressure for five years. In time the farm work became too hard for me. So I went to the doctor, and the Czech district physician gave me a paper certifying that I am totally unfit for hard work. I took this document to the Employment Office and asked them to assign me to lighter work. The Employment Office refused to admit the document, and five employees of the Employment Office proceeded to beat me until I passed out. Only then was my unfitness for work acknowledged.

 

Stecken
(concentration camp near Iglau)

 

Reported by: Hermine Kunzer Report of July 14, 1946

After we had been assigned to farmers in the district of Tschaslau for a period of one year with extremely heavy work and the small amount of food obtainable on German ration cards, we returned to the camp at Stecken near Iglau on June 7, 1946 in a state of complete exhaustion. On June 18th we were ordered on parade; Czech farmers from the neighbourhood came and examined us to find out if we were fit for work. Hundreds of those chosen by the farmers had to return to agricultural work. Anyone who complained of illness or other disability was answered with a blow or an insult of the lowest kind. Women fainted or suffered heart attacks and had to be carried away. Many of them had been diagnosed by Czech surgeons of the district of Tschaslau as needing an operation. Nevertheless they had to go to agricultural work. Certificates from Czech doctors that they were incapable of working were torn up. I myself, 53 years of age, had both ankles dislocated and a contused heel-bone, as a result of jumping out of the window to avoid being raped. I limped along with a stick, but none the less had to perform heavy agricultural labour. A wooden shed without windows was our apartment. All this took place at Markowitz near Tschaslau. My husband, 73 years of age, who was also working there, contracted pneumonia.

 

Stefanau

 

Reported by: Karl Ottahal Report of June 28, 1946

I was imprisoned in the Stefanau concentration camp since May 25, 1945. The prisoners there were beaten every evening. On June 17 we 20 prisoners from Sternberg were given a day's so-called home leave in order to get some clothes and linen. When we reported to the Národní Dum at 7 o'clock that evening to return under guard escort to the camp, members of the Employment Office that was quartered there took us into a basement room and maltreated us. I was eighteenth, and they kicked me down approximately 20 steps into the dark basement room. Due to the fall I suffered a broken pelvis, and bruised my right hand and broke my arm in landing on a box in the basement. In this condition I was given 10 more blows to my face with a rubber truncheon. Then they led me to my home, which was quite close by. The doctor who was called ordered me taken to the hospital, where I had to be treated for 4½ months. The treatment cost 4,700 Kc, which I had to pay out of my own pocket.

Documents on the Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans
Survivors speak out