Vladimír Kučera

"I think there were a few Germans left after the war. I know there was a countess who lived in the hospital during the war. But she was quite seriously ill by the time she was forty-five, so they had to move her out. Those people walked or some wagons were loaded. So they ordered them one morning at seven o'clock to be ready - a small baggage. And those who could walk, walked, and those who couldn't, they went on a wagon to Jaroměř, and there they were wagoned. Finally it was arranged that they left the Countess there. And the wife of Peter Špork stayed there with her. That was a grandson, I guess. She took care of her, and the Countess died in '46. But there was another incident. Before the Russians came, the Countess' daughter, the Countess' daughter, was living in that hospital. She was afraid of the Russians, so she jumped in front of a train. It killed her, and my mother said that because she jumped in front of the train like a murderess, they didn't bury her in the family tomb, but in the hospital cemetery. And when she died in '46, if it was her mother, she was buried in the same grave. So I had a dad who died in my fifties-I wasn't six years old- , and so we would go to the cemetery with flowers, and my mom would always put flowers on this countess's grave."

"There in Kuks only the older ones remained, as my mother said. We were afraid of Slaboch - he was the head of the NSDAP and lived somewhere at the hospital. And he was really the only somewhat younger one. My grandmother said that the 'partisans' came, and Slaboch had to dig his own grave and they shot him. Which is true. After the war it was like everywhere else. In those first days, as she put it, they stormed in and looted everything they could. Slaboch was shot, and I think his wife cut her throat. At the hospital during the war there had been an institution for incorrigible young Germans. And so I know they also shot one of the attendants, and maybe another one as well. They’re buried somewhere there. Then, after the war, when the Russians came through - they were moving from Jaroměř toward Trutnov, or the other way around - they camped for the night above the village. By coincidence, some Czechs or Poles were fleeing toward Poland and also camped on the other side. The Russian soldiers stormed in, raped the women, and shot those who tried to defend them. I know for sure they shot one man and buried him there somewhere."