An Example of Suffering
Testimony of Gypsy During the Holocaust

I put up this page partially as a response to the requests I get for free Christian counseling. In my aspirations to be a useful Christian and my desire to do good for God, I made these webpages as a platform to help those who might not otherwise go to a church for counselling. Perhaps one might more easily reveal by email their fears etc. to a person they do not know, rather than face a live person in a church.

But instead I found that most of the people who wrote to me with their problems were already believers, crying about a heart ache from a relationship that recently ended. Or complaining about their "great woes". I was not helping unbelievers as I had hoped, but was just a shoulder to cry on. I myself often complain when things do not go well for my business, essentially blaming God for it. But a few times during my career as a translator I’d get a project translating testimonies by holocaust victims, mostly of Gypsies (called Roma in Europe). I regret to have lost some translations in the past, but below is one interview I recently translated which I think is good to read. Because after translating it, I was embarrassed about my own paltry complaints. I think it is healthy to read of such horrors, and how other people in the world can suffer so much more than us in the west. I’ve heard about a psychologist who quit her profession because she got tired of rich folks whining to her about their endless "problems". She just had to roll her eyes and listen to complaints which to her seemed pathetically insignificant compared to the frustrations of the average person. Which again is nothing compared to the suffering many have to experience in the world today. For example, once my grandmother pointed at the TV showing African children with swelled bellies, who were starving to death, and said they are like that because they are too lazy to work. The swelling of bellies happens when one eats so little for so long that their stomach acid begins to eat their own bodies, and for the body to protect itself against this attack, it surrounds the area with water and many white blood cells. So I can only imagine the perpetual pain these children must be going through (especially since I fast every year and am well familiar with the feeling of gnawing hunger), and that it is the height of ignorance to assume they are too lazy to work. I cannot imagine any human who would rather endure such perpetual pain than to work.

I can go into a major speech how people in the west are so sheltered from the suffering taking place around the world. How they are absolutely horrified to learn of the death of 3,000 of their own, after two buildings fall to the ground, but barely give attention to millions displaced and dead due to immense flooding in India. After all, it is "way over there", and they are not "our people". So people go to the shopping malls on the weekends, buy things out of boredom, stuff their faces with more food, and complain about their endless "woes".

But I think that reading of the suffering can open one’s eyes, hopefully invoke compassion, and give one a sense of healthy appreciation for everything they have, as opposed to dwelling on everything they don’t have, always comparing themselves to someone who is better off than they are. This can be considered one great reason for their unhappiness. So I hope that, by reading of these horrible injustices and sufferings, you will learn to better appreciate the simple pleasures in life, everything you are blessed with, and exercise greater compassion on those who are worse off than you. This I believe is how God would like all of us think. The opposite case is when everyone dwells on their own selfish aspirations and wants, and does not help those who are worse off. THIS is the reason why people are starving in the world. Because everyone tries to maximise their own benefit. If everyone gave 10% of their income and resources to charity or to someone worse off, as the bible commands, there would be no suffering or starvation in the world.

But before you read this testimony of a Gypsy person who suffered through a holocaust, a little introduction is needed.

When I lived in Toronto Canada I was surprised to learn from a black friend of apparent racism there. But as a white person, I guess I would not notice it. The first time I started being aware of racism was when I returned to the country of my birth, the Czech Republic. After spending most of my life in Canada, I came back to Prague but obviously with a thick accent and a different perspective on life than if I had stayed behind the iron curtain under the repressive communist regime. And many people seemed bitter against me - envious that I had it so well (apparently the streets of Canada are all laid in gold). So I would feel hostility against me, and everywhere I went the locals would try to overcharge me and make my life more difficult.

Under communism, with closed borders, societies within these countries tended to be more homogeneous. Everyone was white. But when the borders opened following the fall of communism, all of a sudden Prague was inundated with all sorts of people of different colours and perspectives on life. Many people felt invaded, and whined of how "the good ol’ days are gone". I find the same mentality in small hick towns in the US, where everyone is the same colour, and where there is a strong culture of homogeneity. It is basically Nazism to look down on someone of a different colour, as if they are your inferior. I consider it of very weak character. It is the same motive of selfishness. One likes to feel good about themselves, and putting weaker minorities down can make a person of such weak character feel good about themselves. And during my fourteen years living in Prague, I constantly witnessed how the Czechs would cut down the Gypsies. Calling them dirty thieves. Yet not once during those fourteen years had any Roma tried to steal from me, but constantly the Czechs. So I thought it was rather ironic of them to point in such a way at the Roma when they themselves would constantly thieve from me. And exercise such despicable envy.

After all, the Roma were and are a blemish on their clean and white society. When travelling through Montenegro, I ran into Tommy the Party Preacher, who told me he thinks that God created the "despicable and treacherous" Roma and inflicted such perpetual suffering on them in order to exercise our own compassion. But, perhaps because I consider myself a Bohemian, I have always enjoyed the company of Gypsies. I like their carefree attitude, and their simple joy of life and the moment, and their open love for their families and people around them. But I can see how this would rub the envious Czech the wrong way. Czechs are very conservative, industrious and hard working people. They speak to each other so formally that it makes my stomach turn. And they are very envious, and always want to be the best, and the most rich and well off. So I can see how they can burn in anger when they see a Roma family enjoying themselves and dancing in their garden, especially when they (the Roma family) are noticeably worse off than they are. As if, based on such natural envious nature, they should expect to receive gratification and satisfaction by seeing a financially worse off person even more miserable than they are. But when they see such people with free and happy spirits, it burns them with anger. So they practically spit on them when walking by them on the streets, calling them dirty Gypsies, since their skin is a naturally dark colour.

I have developed a theory that, before the invention of borders and countries, there existed naturally nomadic societies, who would move from place to place so that they do not exploit the natural resources of one area. Like cows do, slowly wandering to the next patch of grass, letting the previous patch of grass grow back. It is natural, especially in desert areas. And there is nothing wrong with it. And perhaps this nature has been genetically inbred into such societies of people, who only run into problems when their free lifestyle suddenly slams into a wall - a border, or another and stronger society who instruct them that they cannot just keep walking around like that, picking apples off of trees and living such a free lifestyle. It is basically envy. The person who has to slave in the office from 9 to 5 every day will feel bitter when seeing someone else live a free lifestyle. Especially when the other person is financially worse off. They feel as if that person is stealing from them - as if they have to work hard and pay taxes to pay for these freeloaders.

This is the state of society that has developed under a homogeneous communist regime. And one which may be natural within all us humans, as it seems to constantly surface everywhere in the world. A region may be inflicted with 30% unemployment, but as soon as someone of different colour has a well paid job, the locals, no matter how inept and incapable they are of performing that job, will point their finger at such a person and blame them for "stealing" their jobs. After all, it is an identifiable group. A foreign invader. You cannot point your finger at someone of your own colour and race, because you are only revealing that you do not have that job due to your own inability. But with someone of a different race and colour, it is easy to make such an accusation, with everyone quickly jumping on the same bandwagon, so that they can improve their lives (by removing that foreign invader from that job so that one of their "own" can benefit from it). This is the nature of racism which we can find in all of us. And which you can see the eventual results of by reading the following testimony.

This is even more abused during volatile times of war. There was a famous study performed in the US sometime around the 1950s where people were asked to press a button resulting in the electrocution of someone in an adjacent room. It was all staged, where the person in the other room was only an actor who would scream in agony every time the button was pressed. And after pressing the button, the scientist would always increase the voltage, and instruct the person to press the button again. The remarkable and surprising outcome of the study was that more than half the people continued to press the button, even at imaginary extremes of 400 volts and while the person in the next room screamed in pain and on the verge of death. All of those examined felt bad about it, to some degree, but if the scientist argued that they will take full responsibility for any repercussions, more than half those examined would press the button, on instruction. They would not stand up against the scientist and follow their conscience. Humankind is a very social animal, which has learned to survive well against other animals and other tribes of humans precisely because of its level of cooperation, in which the ability to communicate through language has played a major role. So one might argue that it is understandable when a majority of people will comply to instruction, even though it might stand against our sense of God’s justice, which is instilled and stamped on our foreheads, as the bible says.

In times of war, army personnel nail women to barn doors and rape entire villages, including children. It is "acceptable behaviour" during these times. Everyone else is doing it, so it becomes okay. If it is common for a father to have his daughter’s sexual organ ripped out and sowed up to give her future husband greater pleasure, while giving her only pain, it is "ok", no matter how sick such a concept may be if one actually sits down and ponders it.

So I think that reading about the following testimony is good also for the reason that it might help us police ourselves. Not to so quickly turn the other way in the face of such blatant racism, but to put one’s foot down and expose themselves to danger. Otherwise, with a majority of people so easily compliant to authority and quick to turn the other way, we will always be destined to return to the holocaust. Where bullies band together against the weak while the silent majority peaks through drawn curtains. We will always return to the horrors of war if such natures are not curtailed. These bands of racist thugs collect in groups and are very scary (I can testify from personal experience). They themselves are often youngsters who might come from broken families and long for some group they can identify with and where they can feel part of a greater and accepting family. The Czech police have said that often such brutal and violent thugs break down and cry once arrested. They realise that what they are doing is wrong, but it is the sense of power and thrill to be on the stronger side, and to feel great and better than others, that drives them to behave this way. Not to mention the need to be accepted and pressures imposed by the group on them. It is a sad human nature within all of us. The bible itself says that we must learn to suppress this nature within us. Hopefully reading the following testimony will help towards this measure.

I translated it for a friend who was making a movie about the injustices against the Roma people in the Czech Republic. It is an interview with a Gypsy woman who suffered the horrors of the holocaust with her family. She does not speak very clearly and cohesively in Czech, perhaps due to a lack of education, and my friend said a first draft translation was fine, since they will be editing out only parts of it, so the quality of the English can seem painful in parts (as my English in general sometimes, since I often write these pages in haste). But perhaps it is better to leave it that way, so you can get a better feel for the interviewee.

The main theme of the movie concerned the "sterilisation" of Gypsies, whereby it is argued that Czech doctors had a tendency to sterilise Roma woman after they had one or two children. They would get them to sign a paper of consent without fully explaining to them the implications of their signature. After which the Roma women would wake up following an operation and learn that they will never again have any more children. Roma people are loving and carefree and like to have large families. This inevitably irritates Czechs, who usually have smaller families. They are irritated because this "flagrant promiscuity" increases the Roma population in "their" country relative to their own population.

(00:08) My name is X and I was born on June 30, 1937. Previously I lived in Slovakia, in a Roma settlement.

Mrs. K.: (00:39) Yes, from the beginning. Mom worked on the vicarage, like a maid servant, and the vicar came to tell us that the Germans are coming after us. So he told us to run into the forest, which we did, and spent there…

Slovakia, with my parents. My mother used to work on the vicarage … And one day the vicar came to us to tell us that they will put us in a concentration camp. (01:47) So all of us Roma - the entire settlement - got up and ran into the woods, where we stayed for about three weeks. But my mother had enough, so we went back home. We came home in the morning and the Germans came to pick us up at three in the morning. (02:12) In these sort of carts, which I remember very clearly till today. There were these carts < . So they threw us into these carts and hauled us off to Humenný, where we waited three days, when they came with the wagons and put all of us Roma [Gypsies] into those. We were then in those wagons for three days, during which they hauled us off to the concentration camp, which was in Dubnice na Váhom. (02:51) Three days it took them to transport us there. They then put us in a Nazi camp, these live in Nazi camps, which I remember clearly like as if it was today. They put my dad and brothers on one side and the women on another. My dad was on one side and we, with my mom, were on the other.

Mrs. K.: (03:39) Well, my mother would go out and beg. How did we earn a living? Well, there was no work, nothing at all. But we had it well, because grandpa was a blacksmith. And my dad worked with him in a forge. I remember that horses would go there and that they would make the horse hooves. So we had it well. I also worked at the vicarage. (04:08) But there were other settlements, where the Roma did not have any work. Nothing at all. They survived how they could, usually by begging, bring home bread and potatoes. I know that they cooked potatoes, burning fires and baking potatoes.

Mrs. K: (04:36) There were a lot of us there - I’d say more than fifty homes. Little cabins. And my dad was like the chairman there. He was the <býrov> . Before we used to call it <býrov> . My dad was like the chairman over all the Roma, and he got along well with the chairman - with the <gádža> who were there. (05:09) He had a good relationship with them.

Mrs. K.: (05:17) We were, like from here to the metro. We were separated from those people. Are you talking about those cabins? Yes? They were next to one another. A short distance apart, like this… A bit, one after another they were.

Mrs. K.: (05:37) We were far away from the whites. Like at the metro, perhaps even farther away than from the gádža< . I know there was this foot-bridge there which we had to cross, which is how we got home. There were many of us Roma there, many of us.

Mrs. K.: (06:01) I do not know why. I really don’t know, but I know that the gádža< did not like us and would <kurkat> after us. When we went, mom would send me for milk, so I went with my sister, and no one would want to give us any milk. And the <kurkat> on us. They couldn’t stand us, as did the Slovakians. (06:24) No one will ever like us Roma, maybe. Someone is ringing. Can I go open the door?

Interviewer:(06:34) Someone at the door, or is it the telephone?
Mrs. K. (06:40) At the door, down below.

Mrs. K.: (06:49) No, they didn’t. I know that they didn’t. Because when I went with my sister, I was nine years old, when I went with my sister, they did not like us - not even the Slovakians. I recently hear, when I wrote that Dubnice nad Váhom, I heard that they sold us. (07:14) I am not certain whether this is true, whether they had actually sold us. So I cannot say for certain.

Mrs. K.: (07:31) Well, what can I say. I don’t really have much contact with them, being here in Prague. But I have an aunt who is still there, who still lives there. And apparently they are not like they used to be. They apparently are not like that anymore. (07:48) My aunt calls me from Slovakia and she says this. So I don’t know. I don’t know how long it has been since I’ve been there.

Mrs. K.: (08:03) You bet I remember. We were there, and my dad dug a sort of hole in the ground, in which we would bake potatoes and eat there. We were there for three weeks and my mother had enough, because there were many of us. So she said, „Let’s go home." (08:22) Dad was against it, but mom simply had enough, so we all came home, in the morning from the forest, and at three o’clock they grabbed us. They grabbed us at three in the morning. We heard gunfire, we hid in the attics, but even there they found us. I was there with my mother - us girls and children - and dad was downstairs. They found us. They shot a lot of bullets. My mom got eight of them. Each of us got some, until there wasn’t even room for more. And then they carted us off to that Humenný, where we waited for three day, until they came with the wagons.

Mrs. K.: (09:23) Well, there was nowhere to put us, so I do not know what they were doing. They took us out of those carts, the horses were taken away, and that was it. And then they put us in those carts.

Mrs. K.: (09.37) Three days, in that cart and outside. One would be able to go for a quick walk, and then the carts were there. I remember that those wagons woud close up and that had these little windows. That much I remember. (09:54) There were four of us families in that one wagon. There was one aunt, another aunt, and the children. Many of them died in there - many of them. Because there was not enough room to breath. (10:08) I know that my three <troje> cousins remained there. Then came the wagons, into which they loaded us and for three days we rode to Dubnice na Váhou. When we arrived there they forced us out using their machine guns and carried us. They carried us, I remember that much, to some long building, in that Nazi camp. (10:39) Then they raped the women, and took dad somewhere else, and we later learned that dad was on the other side, where we and my mom were on the opposite side. It was a long and large room. (11:00) And I remember it clearly like it is today, these wooden beds. That we didn’t have our heads like this, but like outside. And we all slept together, and it was unbearable. One couldn’t even breath there. (11:19) Not a drop of air. It was horrible. I spent half a year in that place.

Mrs. K.: (11:24) Squeezed, like total sardines. I know that there were Jews there as well. Jews there with us Roma. Roma and Jews, where the Jews were about three Nazi camps from us. And our entire village, which was all together. One couldn’t go outside. There they raped the women. (11:54) The wife of my brother was three months pregnant when they raped her. Then came a car, like they were going to put them into a hospital. And we watched them, like I’m staring at this building, how they shot them all. (12:13) There was this ditch in the ground, a shot in the head, and into the ditch they were thrown. My uncle and aunt were there. And all of them stayed there - many of us. Many of us stayed there. And then came the Russians, thank God. (12:33) The Russians came, who freed us. Yes, they freed us. And then the trains did not run, as everything was bombed, so we had to go on foot. I remember that till today, that my brother had to carry me, as we couldn’t, because of the Typhoid fever that we had. (12:53) From all the dirt, and all the potatoe peels we were baking. So my brother carried us. My brother carried my other brother on his neck, and me like this in his arms. And it took us three months to get home. (13:09) Three months, barefoot, naked, in the woods we had to sleep, sleep in the woods and all that. But people would give us food, as we would beg as we go. So people would give us food. And once it got dark, in the woods we would be. Because we were afraid. And then we would go and they wanted to kill us, as there were still Germans there. (13:34) So my dad saluted them and said that we are going to that… home, that we were shut in, and pleaded that now they wanted to kill us. The German: „no, no, no". So then my dad told him to call his supervisor, or whoever they had, who then came and let us go. (13:56) And then what happened to the women, oh my God, how they greased them up between the legs. How do they say it, yes, the morgue - they would pour cold water on them, and then rape them, and then beat them with batons. (14:16) So then my mother sent me for that <min (?) > because she got a quarter of a bread. There were eight of us, so who was she supposed to give it to? (14:24) So my mom let me go, and then came… and there was a Roma there. How started to beat us! A Roma! His name was X, and I remember him like today, because he was with the Germans, yes he was. And he hit me, and I know I fell, on those barbed wires, how sharp they are… Can I with my hand like this? Those wires were like this … (14:49) Sharp. So he beat me with that baton, and I fell on that barbed wire, my mother jumped, and held me in my arms. And then they put me in that…

Mrs. K.: (15:05) Where did they send me? To the <minár> . That is how we call it: with a cup to get some food. But he didn’t give me anything but beat me with his baton, and I fell on those barbed wires. And until today I still have these scars.

Mrs. K.: (15:36) They said… because there was that Typhoid fever. We got Typhoid fever</typhus from those potatoe< peels. They said they are taking us to the hospital. But they didn’t take them to the hospital. Then they had to sing one song - I don’t know it - they sang it, I listened, and then they shot them and threw them into the ditch, the lot of them. (16.00) They didn’t care whether they were young, or old, or who it was. My aunt, and all my aunts stayed there.

Interviewer: (16:09) You saw how they shot them?
Mrs. K.: (16:12) Yes, we saw that. We all saw that.

Interviewer: (16:16) How did you escape the same fate?
Mrs. K. (16:17) It were very sick. Not well at all. The wife of my brother was three months pregnant and they shot her. We suffered greatly there. They raped the women. (16:44) Everything.

Mrs. K.: (17:01) Oh yes, I forgot to say that. The first batch they shot, and the second batch, which was my dad, my sister, my brothers - they drove us to the hospital. Then they let us know, as one came, who did not have that Typhus, and said: „Don’t worry about your husband, who, like your mother, is there, with your children. (17:30) And they really were in the hospital. Where they got healthy and came back. They went there because either there was no room for the other batch, or they found out something about them. I’m not sure. In any case, they were there. So when my father came from the hospital, and my brother and all, and then the Russians took over. The Russians then came and they let us all go.

Mrs. K. : (18:02) There were nice girls with us. Young girls, around 19 and 20 years old. Beautiful girls, I remember. They were very beautiful. <Dyk kolikrát jsme si dělali ze saze.> Not me, but my sister yes. They took us when the Russians came, or someone came, so they took soot and smeared the soot on them, as if they were dirty. (18:26) What could they do about it? But some of the Germans were kind. There was this Nazi camp, and there was this little window down there, with the machine guns, and we didn’t have anything to eat, and my mother didn’t know what to give us. So one German told us to go at such and such a time, so they wouldn’t alternate. < (18:52) Well they didn’t come. How they beat my sister. The poor soul, she had it all hacked up here on the side. And my aunt to that mortuary, how they poured the water on her and beat her. How they beat her. (19:09) So this is how we lived through that time. A lot. And then when we came home, after those three months, the gádža< didn’t want to take us back, telling us not to go back to our homes, because we had that Typhus. (19:25) They were worried that they might catch it from us. So we came home and found everything bombarded. Where should we sleep? Where should we go? What should we do? Only at the vicarage would they help my mother. Taking us in like they did and letting us sleep on the hay. (19:39) There was that hay they let us sleep on. So we had to live through a lot. A lot.

Mrs. K.: (18:58) Like I said, from those potatoe peels they were throwing on the compost pile. They would throw them on the compost pile and we would go out and gather them, after which we would go back to the camp and bake them in this big oven, how we had the fridge. So we would bake that and eat it. And no wonder there was that Typhus, because how dirty those peels were. (20:22) And then my mom got that quarter bread and she didn’t know who to give it to, because there were eight of us.

Mrs. K.: (20:31) I don’t know. I don’t know. She gave it to the youngest of us. She gave some to me, one to my brother, and then the other. Oh and one thing I forgot to tell you. (20:43) How we went on foot, my mother was pregnant, and gave birth. We used to say „debra", but now we say ditch. So this is where my mother gave birth, in the ditch. While they were still bombing, so we could not make any fire. Dad wanted to wash it, so a bit under a faucet, and then wrapped it up, wrapped it up. He sharpened a knife a bit on a rock, sharpened it up and then cut the umbilical chord. (21:18) The umbilical chord of that baby boy. But now no diapers, nothing at all, so what to do? And I remember it like it was today. Mom just took up her underpants, wrapped up the baby in that, and on we plodded on foot. (21:35) And it wasn’t too long ago, about three years ago, that he died on me.

Mrs. K.: (21:46) Yes, at the end of the war, while they were still bombing though. They were still fighting. Now I had this brother, and he was like a partisan. They took him and threw him into the army. We were walking on foot when he saw us, and then the commander, and I know there were those trenches, with the helmets on their heads, and how they were shooting. (22:14) So the commander let him talk to us for two minutes. And how my mother saw him, and all of us, and we only had two minutes to see each other, and then back to plodding along.

Mrs. K.: (22:28) After that camp, my brother said that he did not have anything there anymore and that he is going to Prague. Everyone praised him, saying it was a good idea. He told us not to go yet, because he didn’t know if he could find a place to live. (22:44) And then my brother came here with his wife, and found a flat in Smíchov. But then it didn’t work out for him. They were hard working, and then my dad went to look for work after the marriage, and found work as a digger. (23:07) They gave us a room there, where we all lived, and where both my dad and brother would be diggers.

Mrs. K.: (23:15) If I could only remember. It was after 1944. So we lived there, after which my brother put in an application, and received a flat on Holečkový street in Smíchov [in Prague, Czech Republic], where he took us all in. (23:33)

Mrs. K.:(23:40) I don’t know. I’m telling you I had to write to Slovakia to get certification, due to all that paperwork. They told me they couldn’t do anything for me, because I have Czech citizenship. (23:57) They told us to write to Trenčín, that in Trenčín they will give it to us. So we wrote there and received back those documents. My parents were already dead, but they found my dad and my mom.

Mrs. K.: (24:53) I don’t know, but Jews as well. And several times, when they saw a Jew, I don’t know how it used to be called here, but it was this type of furnace, and within that water, and the water was boiling and they would throw them in that. One of our own they threw in there as well. And one of them they tied to the back of a horse, because he had taken some partisan things, because there was nothing to take. So he was dead there, and undressed, and took on himself. He was the son of my aunt. He was about thirty years old. So they dragged him behind a horse and we had to watch it.

Mrs. K.: (25:40) No, but as we were heading back. On our way home, because Germans were everywhere. But those Russians truly did save us. So my dad, once we had gotten out of that Nazi camp and started to head back, we all had to kiss the ground. (26:00) And pray. My dad got on his knees, and pleaded, and we all prayed. And three times we kissed the ground, we were so happy. We had lived through enough.

Mrs. K.: (26:43) Yes, us Roma as well. The Jews were also slaves, as we were. Slaves like us. There were only Jews there with us. And like I said, there was one Roma there who was with the Germans. And then when we… my brother worked here, and another, and I had five brothers. (27:03) Six brothers, actually. And we then found out that that one Roma lived not far from here, so my brother went to look for him - so we could kill him. But he had already died a month earlier, my brother said. But my brothers found his son, and they gave him a good licking. (27:23) They gave it to him all right! Because he had beaten us. He had gotten orders from those Germans, yes. They were speaking to him, but if a person cannot understand, what can they do?

Mrs. K.: (27:45) Well, I don’t know how it was with those Jews, as we weren’t even allowed outside. None of us were allowed to go outside. I know there was this wooden toilet there, across a hall, but one could not go farther than that. (27:59) Such a small window. Only down, when you wanted to crawl through something - otherwise nothing. I don’t know. But what I do know is that they had it well. Because when I was young, we made a hole and they gave us food into our mouths from their mouths. (28:18) And we were like children, you know. So I know they had it better, with the food at least. They gave it to us from their mouths and we ate like that.

Mrs. K.: (28:31) It was four. Well, most of the time we were closed in like that. They would bring us that <minář>, lay it down, and then carry it away again. Like that food they would bring us. In the morning they would give a quarter of a bread, which was supposed to last until the evening and then until the morning. So we had to resort to those potatoe peels. (28:53) What else could we eat? My poor mom didn’t know how to allocate the food. She always gave the youngest of us, while the others didn’t eat.

Mrs. K.: (29:10) We got that Typhus after being there about two months. Within two months we got it. I don’t know how they call it now, but in Slovakian they called it Typhus. So then we had to go, and people didn’t even want to allow us into their village. (29:34) So they carted us off to Humenný, to the steam room. You know what that steam room is? It’s boiling water, and we were all there, and they poured on us boiling water. Like to bath us in that steam room. (29:50) I don’t know how to say it in Czech. But all of us Roma had to go there, and only then did they allow us into the village.

Mrs. K.: (30:14) Well, we all thought we’d get shot and that they’d come and get us at any moment. That is what we were all waiting for. Waiting for that. But it worked out that we were saved, as I said, by those Russians. So we only sat there and didn’t expect anything else. That we would all go and fall, fall. And nothing we could do about it.

Interviewer: (30:44) You were nine years old at the time?
Mrs. K.: (30:46) Yes.

Mrs. K.: (30:49) I remember it as if it was today. Like as if it was today I remember it. I tell you, one of my brothers, he had it hard, but the youngest, he had Typhus. (31:02) He had Typhus, and my mother told him that we’d leave him there. So he said, „Then leave me, and be on your way." He was so sick. We really suffered a lot.

Mrs. K.: (31:23) I remember, how we once heard… and then immediately crawled under the table. And also when my brother came back after the war, he was shooting, because he was a soldier, so he would shoot. And he came back with a machine gun to take a look, as the commander had let him go, to see if we were at home. To see whether or not we were at home. (31:48) And he was shooting, and singing a song: „My dear mother, open the door, your son has arrived." So we all hid, dad turned off the lights, the candles and everything, and we all thought they were coming to take us away. But it was my brother, my brother, I remember. So you know, nine years, a person remembers that. (32:15) Worse was with my sister, who suffered greatly. She suffered a lot. She also died, about a year ago now. She was 74, and now she is gone.

Mrs. K.: (32:35) I don’t know, I really don’t know. I don’t know at all. But I heard, from my aunt, that we were sold off by that chairman, the entire Roma settlement sold off. After all, it did not happen anywhere else. Because the boys back then were not as smart as they are now. (33:00) That is how it happened. No other village but only us - the entire settlement. The entire Roma settlement. Except only one, which lives my daughter with her son, her grandfather, grandmother - they were both over a hundred years old. But we could not find them anymore - not even at home. We couldn’t even find them at home.

Mrs. K.: (33:42) I know, but those who experienced nothing do not admit anything. But those of us who were there, we lived through the horror of it. You know how it is to be naked, and lime put between a woman’s legs? (33:57) To soak and then between the legs? This is the kind of clowning they did with us. And I saw this with my own two eyes, how they did this to us. They had this lime</whitewash <vápno> , and a brush, like for painting, and wipe it on between their legs. (34.14) And then they would pour water on her and beat her. They were evil, and it was horrible. And the children forced to watch their parents during it. I know, because I was nine years old. It was horrible. So we had experienced our share for certain.

Mrs. K.: (34:38) Basically they basically just making clowns of them. When they found a nice woman, like my mom, who was white, a Russian, a nice white Russian. So between the legs they’d take this brush, which I saw with my own two eyes, this brush between the legs, and cut between the legs, and did whatever they could think of.

Mrs. K.: (35:13) I don’t know. I am only telling you the truth and what happened to us. But I know that the Jews were criminalised as well. I know, when we went, and they went after us. There were three or four, and they threw them into that, how they say… We used to say „mar". But they would throw those Jews, sometimes young women, old women, it really didn’t matter to them. (35:51) Whether they were young or old, but they threw them into that steam room, or however it is said in Czech. It was this tall structure, and in it boiling water. And at night, when we had arrived home, all that they had done to the women then! (36:13) The war was still waging. We were on the ground, sleeping, and how they had raped our women. They had to take soot, those poor women, and smear it on their face so they wouldn’t be nice, so that they would not be attractive to the men, as they are. (36:34) I remember that like it was today.

Mrs. K.: (01:24) I don’t know what we did to deserve this.

Mrs. K.: (02:17) I don’t know what we did to deserve this. I don’t know, perhaps they just didn’t like us. That we were Roma.

Mrs. K.: (02:30) Yes, I think that was the reason. Because not only us Roma but also the Jews were there. They behaved against the Jews in the same way.

Mrs. K.: (03:03) In Slovakia I don’t know. My dad was a <býroh (?) - bureaucrat?>, so I don’t know how it was there, but here yes. Here yes. I was in the Fučíkarna, with the children, with my daughter. There was a merry go round there. So she asks me, „Mom, will you go one more time?“ I respond: „No, it is nice. I will stay here, I will go home.“ So I went to Strossnajerovou nam. [in Prague], went to transfer to Karlín and there were many skinheads. (03:36) They kicked me, and I still have here… look. I still have the wounds to show how they were kicking me. And one of them wanted to hit me in the head with a bat, but a man ran out of the building and caught him. (03:52) The driver stopped and then they all ran away. And that is how they beat me. And then my son said, „Mom, mom, I can see how they are riding in a taxi. Mom, when I see a skinhead, I’ll run over him. They can go ahead and throw me in jail for it.“ (04:10) I say: „Don’t do such foolishness. Nothing happened to me, and everything is ok now.“ And then there was a girl. I’ll tell you, about a girl who lived in Lužina. A girl came here, my daughter. I can even recommend her to you, my daughter, to show you that it is true. (04:31) And she says to her husband, „Imagine that the children are not going to school." And he says, „Why don’t you put them into school?" He was strict. She replies, „My dear, the school is full of skinheads and I am afraid." And the boy was there, listening to it all. (04:51) And the dad says: „So what will you do now in school, without a signed paper, because before there had to be a paper signed from the doctor and so on, excusing you from school.“ And he replies, „Dad, we must do it somehow.“ The boy listened and didn’t say anything to her. Grabbed all the taxi drivers and they went to Lužin. (05:13) And there were really.. you know that ours were not correct? That they gave the boy a fine? Three hundred, or five hundred Crowns. Because our Roma went with their sticks, the lot of them, because they lived there, no? And ours even <vyklupli (?)>, held out their hands and beat them like that. (05:35) But that is not proper. They only went to help the women, so that their children could go to school.

Mrs. K.: (05:51) Well, I think more in Slovakia. After the war, once we had arrived here, I think it was worse in Slovakia.

Mrs. K.: (06:07) Yes,… So it was worse in Slovakia, yes. Because they were not good to us either.

Mrs. K.: (06:40) No, I feel good here. The people know us, and they do not let anyone get to us. They come visit us, we visit them, and the neighbours are good. So it is good here. I wouldn’t even go back to Slovakia. Can you believe that? (07:02) Can you believe that I wouldn’t even go there? Even though I have aunts there, I would not go there for a visit. I like it here. From the very beginning - even my mother and father, all of us liked it here. None of us would have wanted to go back. So now we have citizenship here - we have everything. I was nine, no ten, not even, when we had arrived here.

Mrs. K.: (07:28) Because I do not like Slovakians. Can you believe that? Maybe not, but I do not like Slovakians. Not when there was fun… because, before, our musicians were… they’d play at weddings, and it was fun. (7) It was fun, but many times there were even fights and all that, so no, we would not go back there. (07:51) Here I would take the risk. Here yes. Here one can always find someone good. Who will stand up for you. Like in the tramway. The driver wanted to call someone, but the boys ran away. They took my purse, ripped my papers and everything. And you know, when I have the anti-fascist passport, which was difficult to get… but all is okay. (08:19) I have my citizenship and everything.

Mrs. K. (08:31) Yes, what do you mean by that?

Mrs. K.: No.

Mrs. K.: (00:12) That it is not just, that the Roma had to suffer in this way.

Mrs. K.: ( 00:37) Yes, it is true. They do know about it. At first they did not want to believe, if we had not requested all those documents, and everything verified - everything. Because nowhere else. But now they all know about it, that we were in that concentration camp. (00:57) Because here I have… U Labut, before it was called Legerova… she unearthed everything. That everything was true and that we had experienced all that. Everything. Barefoot, feet. You know, there were no shoes, like today, that you can just grab some shoes. Before there were no shoes.

Mrs. K.: (00:32) Like I said, … to Fučíkárny, ... you know what that is? On those merry go rounds.. with my daughter.. „Mom, lets go.“ And my daughter says to me: „Mom, I’m going home, because the children will be hungry. They would not be able to eat here." (01:49) So I told her, „Okay, go. I’ll go on my own." So I got into the tram, and it is good that I went on the side where the driver is. So I boarded and it was full of skinheads. (02:06) They started to hail Hitler, and shout „Gypsies to the gas chamber!" and all that, and hailed Hitler. But they were boys, and I just looked at them, and I did not have a good feeling. (02:20) I thought to myself that I was on my own. And then one kicked into me, and then they grabbed my bag, kicking into the bag, and the documents. And one, a younger one, wanted to hit me with a bat. (02:34) But one ran out from a building and saved me, who caught him and said, „This is a neighbour. She did not do anything. She is not doing anything to deserve this treatment." (00:43) The boy said… I then came home and told the event to my kids. My boy says, „Mom, mom, I’m going to drive. If today I see some skinhead I’m going to run over him. Because of what they did to you." Then I showed him my legs, how they were shaking. (03:03) So he went and did it. And he even went to the police and told them about it, how those skinheads had caught and beaten his mom, her legs and all that. (03:17) But everything turned out okay.

Interviewer: (03:19) When did this happen?
Mrs. K.: (03:21) That was about five years ago. Five years it was. And I was getting on at Strossmajerovo nam. I was getting on the 8 tram, I think.

Mrs. K.: ( 03:46) Nothing. I could not find my purse, and I didn’t even have money. I ran out, and my citizenship, the pass and all of it, all turned out good. Because I am registered with the Veteran’s Association <Svaz bojovníků>. So they helped me out after that, with everything. So I now have my citizenship again, and everything else.

Mrs. K.: (04:11) Here. I still have a bruise. They got me here, where the bruise remained. I tried putting a compress on it and everything, but it remains.

Mrs. K.: (04:33) I don’t know any more, as it was ten years ago. It was this younger one, who was in England, the one I have here. She worked there and each week, there they pay you every week, when she would get paid. (04:52) So she stayed there and there was a place for her. Her husband went on his own, my son-in-low, for a beer you know. Just like boys do. And we like to have a certain Roma fun. And he went on his way, drunk, to the metro at Křižíková. Do you know where that is? Křižíková? You know where that is? Outside at the metro. And there were garbage cans there, the large ones. And then those boys started, hailing Hitler and shouting Roma, and he was afraid by himself. (05:29) And they took him and threw him into the garbage, and lit it on fire. But just then his nephew happened to come by and saved him. He lived another five days after that. (05:48) So he pulled him out of that fire, otherwise it would have burned. And now his nephew is behind bars. And my daughter, how she saw this and heard about it, says: „Mom, I don’t want to be here anymore. Mom, I’m not going to stay here, I’m going after Lenka." (06:04) So they went after her daughter and already received … because she had reported it, but that racism really exists here. Even she has … even like how he died … (06:15) How those skinheads had done that to him, beating him and then to throw him in the garbage bin like that. He lived for five days after that, and then he died. Young, at the age of 49. My daughter will now be fifty. (06:31) No, he was 29, 29 years old he was. A young man at 29. A young man indeed. He’s buried over there in Olšany. And she, after seeing this: "Mom, I’m not going to stay here. I’m going after Lenka." She now has status there [in England], everything, and is doing well. Because she has those pictures taken and everything. (06:58) What they did to him, and how she had to admit there was racism here. There certainly is.

Interviewer: (07:06) And she is where now?
Mrs. K.: (07:08) Where you just said she was. Right there.

Mrs. K.: (07:14) Yes, in London, right in London. And she is doing well. Right now she will come here on vacation. They apparently have holidays there, until the twenty sixth of July or something like that.

Mrs. K.: (07:30) Well, you see it on TV what they are doing, how they are burning those bottles and throwing them, as they are showing on TV. Those poor Roma, … they grab a bottle, something in it, and they almost killed the children there. When we are people like anyone else … (07:55) They throw those bottles and attack Roma. As if it weren’t really happening. They should get a bit more strict, no? To make a lesson of them, so they wouldn’t behave like this against the Roma. A person is afraid to go somewhere. I wouldn’t go anywhere at night, in case they might attack me. Even if you were to threaten me with death I wouldn’t go. Well, if my sons go, and my grandsons, then I’ll go with them, because my grandsons are good and solid. (08:27) So they are not afraid, and they would take care of their grandmother. Oh, and I forgot to tell you another thing. (08:34) I have a son, who is deaf and mute, who lives on Černý Most and whose bride is also a deaf-mute, as are their children. So they called me, the chairman of the cooperative, that a cooperative had been formed, and that I should go there [meeting of the residential building to discuss various matters, as, after communism, many of these apartment buildings were handed to the residents, who now own it as a cooperative and together make decisions regarding its management]. To their meeting. To pay some two thousand crowns. (08:59) Two thousand crowns which are supposed to go to the cooperative. So what am I supposed to do? So I go, and I took the younger one with me. And she can’t hear very well and has her butt hanging out like this. She couldn’t walk either. So we went there to that Černý Most. (09:18) The meeting had ended, and the boy didn’t have cigarettes, the deaf-mute one, so I said, „Mother, here cigarettes.“ So I brought him three beers, and some cigarettes, but behind me I did not notice that there were skinheads. (09:39) And I hear from behind me: „Get out of here. From where did you come?" They were sending me to Romania, or where they were telling me to go. „Get out of here, from where have…" And I said, „Who are you talking to?" „Well, you of course! You stupid cow." Saying this to a seventy year old woman! And then to the bride: „Hey, why do you stick your ass out like that?" And then he said he’ll wait for us. (10:09) So we were afraid. There was a Vietnam person there, and we were afraid to go outside. And just at that moment he came from my grandson, from his father’s wife, and he asks, „What wrong?" I said, „Listen, I came here for a meeting and those skinheads, they want to…" „Let them come then!" He took off his jacket. He’s a proper solid one… (10:31) He took off his jacket and went after them. „Don’t worry aunty!" Then came my grandson and said that he is going after him. I said we wont go anywhere, and that I came back in all shaken, that if they had killed us, the deaf-mute and myself. (10:46) And then the boys came and found out all that had happened. And now from the cooperative the chairwoman is going out with the deaf-mute, and who has a deaf-mute girl, she said: „Mrs. Kormanová, what is wrong with you?" I said, "Listen, I went to get some cigarettes for the boy (11:03) and the skinheads attacked me." She says, „Don’t worry, we’ll call the police." But once the boy came back we got in the car and I couldn’t sleep the entire night. If that uncle had not shown up, then I’m sure they would have beaten us both right there. She is handicapped. (11:23) She has that butt all… and she is deaf-mute. So you see … and it is how long? Must be about seven months, or even less. When the cooperative was founded. (11:35) Because I have to speak on their behalf. I have to go with them to the doctor, with that boy. And now the girl has her daughter, and son, she has two children who can hear, so the doctor says, „Stay, while you are still alive. Then those children will come instead, to speak on their behalf." (11:57) It is because they not hear. And now the boy cannot even see anymore. So consider that if they found this deaf-mute boy, they would normally kill him. He’s dark like his dad. And so what? So racism is definitely here. Its about four or five months now, how the cooperative went into it. So we paid the two thousand crowns, we came to an agreement, and I was on my way home, no? So you see, racism is here. (12:31) What did they even want from us? What were they thinking? I really don’t know.

Mrs. K. (12:46) And in England my daughter, she told me just as she phoned me last night: „Mom, I went out for entertainment but… I asked her: „How did you go?" She said: „I took a taxi. You don’t need to worry here, mother. (13:03) In Czech you do have to worry, but not here." So it is apparently better in England. We don’t know how it will be, but the world goes on.

Mrs. K.: (13:28) Yes, now as well. I’ve had enough experience in this regard. When I hear something, then right away I run home. Once, when my daughter was in England and my husband had already died, and I went to the window to look outside, and they had some meeting there. And boy was it crazy. (13:55) Someone told me I should go hide, so I hid myself, as they were trying to break in down below! I wanted to hide in amongst the pile of wood. (14:04) But thankfully it was locked downstairs, as we lock for the evening, so it turned out okay. But the racism is certainly here.

Mrs. K.: (14:25) It continued, but not where we were living, as I said, in those building … I forgot where now. Because we never went anywhere. But now, when the boys need to go somewhere and you hear from them: „Grandma, they attacked us", and say other things. And the girl? (14:50) She went out, her and that fourteen year old boy, and they were running after them until they didn’t know where to turn, so she left her bike behind and ran to our neighbours. Upstairs. I’m sure they would have killed her and the boy. And he was still a young one, that fourteen year old. If she were home now she’d explain how it all went.

Mrs. K.: (15:44) I heard something about it, but I don’t understand it much. I saw it on TV, but I do not understand it that much. About how children are put away?

Mrs. K.: (16:02) Oh yes, they do it so that … yes, I know now. My daughter talks to me about this all the time, but I don’t hear so well you know. But my daughter talks about it. Is it just? Is it good? What they do with them? Well I know one who wanted to give birth but it didn’t work out. She wanted a second, but something about death, or something like that. (16:28) She wanted to have another but no longer could. Everyone wants their own children. And she was young, not old. Yes, I heard about that on TV. So racism is definitely here. (16:45)

Interviewer: (16:47) How many children do you have?
Mrs. K.: (16:49) I have five.

Mrs. K.: (16:53) I have five children. One of them died, the one I put to school in nature, but he drowned. He was thirty three at the time. Otherwise I have five: three girls and two boys, one of which is a deaf-mute.

Mrs. K.:( 17:26) Well my daughter always says something. I know something about it, as she would tell me about it.

Mrs. K: (17:33) What opinion do I have about it? That the doctor is to blame. That he knows it is racism and that he should take everyone as the same. Is she Roma? It shouldn’t make a difference, as she also wants to be healthy. And wants to have children. (17:50) That is if she explained it to me properly. I don’t hear very well, you see.

Mrs. K.: (19:08) Yes, in jail. But they let him go, and now he’s at home.

Mrs. K.: (19:12) I don’t know. He was defending his uncle and attacked them, and cut something on one of them. Something. And then the police came, and found out in court, and he ended up serving time, as an innocent. (19:29) When my daughter came here, she said: „Mom, you see how unjust it is? Because Láďa died because of it.“ (19:37) And he was protecting only his uncle, when there were something like ten of them. There were ten of them there. And he stood up against them, because he saw how they threw his uncle into that garbage, and that is how it happened. (19.50) He just came back recently - it is about one month now. He was behind bars for a year or two.

Mrs. K.: (19:58) I don’t know if anything happened to them. I said he should have denied it, but he only said that he cut something. It was a knife (20:16) and you know how they take it when a knife is involved.

Mrs. K.: (20:34) Yes, also not. I will no longer go out on my own, until 8pm, if I am not certain. I tried it twice already and never again. I won’t go, although the children do, but they go in large groups. (20:51) I wouldn’t go. Just take how it turned out at Černý Most, where one just goes to a meeting and you never know how it will turn out. And I’m in the back asking: “Who are you saying that to?” “Well, at you you cow!" You know how I felt? I had to totally cry. (21:07) I mean, I’ve even got sons who are older than he is. There must have been around 6 years of them. And now they are waiting for us outside, so what am I supposed to do? They were waiting, if it weren’t for that uncle. (21:21) The uncle of the wife of my grandson. And he asks me: „Aunty, what’s wrong with you?" I say: „Look how they were treating me." So he shouts: „Come after me then, not after an old woman, after my aunt!" (21:35) So they ran away after that. So you see, if he had not shown up, we would be dead. And do you think that Czechs would stand up for you? They wouldn’t. They’d just say it is some Roma, a Gypsy. Very few of them would stand up for one of us. And many people were coming out of that meeting. (22:06) And then that meeting of those skinheads. I just went to the window, to check out all that shouting, and then they: „Hey, look at that cow up there how she’s looking. Get out of here and go back to where you came from!" After which my relative came and told me not to worry about it, assuring me that the door downstairs is locked. (22:27)

Mrs. K.: (22:31) Precisely. I don’t want to experience such suffering ever again. Trust me, I’ve had enough of that, and I don’t want any more. As soon as I hear of any trouble I go crazy. And when the fourteen year old one does not come back from school… I was waiting long, because one never knows. Those kids they take drugs these days, and make such friendships and all that. (22:55) So one gets to find out about everything.

Mrs. K.: (23:8) And not too long ago, on that Černý Most about four or five months ago, I looked behind me then and I thought they were going to attack me right there. (23:26) Because when I see those skins who say stuff like: „Get out of here. Where did you come from. Get lost. You have no business being here." They weren’t even speaking formally to me [In Czech, as in many languages, the language and each word changes depending on whether you speak to someone formally or informally. Generally you always speak to someone you do not know, or at work, and especially to older people, formally and with respect. It is considered quite impolite to speak to someone informally in this situation]. While saying: „Hey bumbum, I’m going to kick you around!" to her. The deaf-mute one, you know, who was only looking around wondering what was happening, asking me: „Mom, what’s wrong?" And I: „Nothing, let’s go home." So this is how it is. (24:09) You think that people will stand up for you at times like this? No, because they themselves are afraid, yes. Except for that chairwoman. Because my grandson is going out with her girl. (24:23) I have a very nice grandson, the dead-mute. He is educated. He found some work, where they like him. He makes 12,000 a month there, and they went out and got a mortgage, so they deduct this amount from his paycheck now. Because they didn’t have enough for furniture. (24:43) So now they deduct the amount from his paycheck. Some five thousand, so he has about six thousand left. And he is deaf-mute. And how much they like him at work, how he works so hard. He leaves in the morning and comes back at 10 o’clock at night. And the girl works in Delvita or wherever it is - the girl of that chairwoman of the cooperative. They love each other. (25:06) Ask what you want. Or have you already turned it off? I guess you’ve had enough.

Interviewer: (25:18) Not yet, but we’ll turn it off [the camera] in a bit.
Mrs. K.: (25.27) Yes, yes, you have enough now. You are not going anywhere now, no.

Mrs. K.: (25:32) You are ending now [the interview]. Because our women are not here anymore - just myself. In Klánovice, where there is still one, but apparently she has died as well. And that Bílá, who sings, the Roma woman, if you know her. She’s from there, in Klecanech, or where it is. (25:53)

Mrs. K.:(25:54) Rokycany. There is still one left from there. And apparently many of them came here, calling me all the time. Yes, yes, what shall we do. (26:16) At night I would … well, only when the kids go, I’ll go with them. Soon I’ll be seventy, and they will come from England. They want to go to a restaurant, but I’m afraid. Because something may happen to them. And I see something on those children. After I’ve lived through all that suffering, and now to be watching the children. (26:45) Go ahead and drink…

Mrs. K.: (26:58) Yes, and I wouldn’t want to live through anything like that again. I said I will die one day, and then I won’t know nothing. But imagine that, from my husband, a small distance, like from here to let’s say Wenceslav Square - a small distance, that village - where they received compensation, how they had to suffer in that concentration camp. Because they did it to all us Roma, no? (27:31) So I arranged for a small <podlai (?) >, if you know what that is.

Mrs. K.: (27:38) 115,000. I cashed in from the floods [Prague floods < link to]. There was, you know, everywhere from the meat. Those, how do you say, those maggots, because when there was the floods… Whenever I get my pension, I always spend 1500 for meat, so I bought meat from that 1500. (28:06) They came for me at night and we threw everyting out, into a big container. We threw out everything - even the new stuff. The fridge - I couldn’t even eat from it anymore, (28:23) how it stank it was horrible. And everywhere we had those [maggots], so I threw out everything. And the rest just needed a wipe down. A little muscle into the wiping… because of the flooding. So what else can we do? Now you talk. You are such a nice guy.

Mrs. K.: (28:03) Well, us older folks, I don’t know. If you were to ask me what I ate last night, I wouldn’t necessarily remember. You know, being seventy now. In a while I’ll be seventy. I wouldn’t want to live through that again. My mother, when she went barefoot, she had this sort of wood, <tady vospod>. That wood and with it the children … a bundle of wood, or whatever it was. (29.36) A person would never want to go through that again. Whenever I hear on the news about that terrorism, or whatever they talk about, I’m already afraid. Because I have already suffered through a lot. A lot. A lot I have suffered. But what can we do, no?

Mrs. K.: (30:33) Yes, precisely. And several times I talked to the children, when they were around eleven. And they would ask how it was, but I couldn’t explain and tears would always well over my face. And they would say, „But mommy, certainly they didn’t do anything to you." Well, it’s because I didn’t tell them anything, how I had suffered. (30:56) All of it. My father was smart. Very smart. If he had not saluted and asked to see the commander, then they would have killed us all right then and there. All of us. The entire village. (31:12) But my dad was smart.

Interviewer: ( 31:17) That was when you were coming back from the.. right?
Mrs. K.: (00:09) So you know what it means to salute? How they do it now, those soldiers, when they see a superior. Well we call it saluting. And some Czechs use the same word. Some of them.

Interviewer: (00:26) How do you feel now, when we were talking about it. How do you feel?
Mrs. K.: (00:29) Well, I do not like to recall this experience. But when you said you would come.. we are people, you know … what had happened to the Roma.

Interviewer: (00:51) After the war, were you perhaps haunted by memories of the war?
Mrs. K.: (00:56) I did not hear you very well.

Mrs. K.: (01:07) Well, yes, sometimes yes. Other times no. A person must forget about these things. All of it. So I manage to forget, fairly quickly. Two, three days, and everything is okay again. You know, these memories, when I was speaking there, then all the people at Strossmajerovo nam. were crying … how afterwards I had went down, from that tribunal … people would say: (01.39): „Well I understand your feelings now. But you look good." I said: „Before I looked nice, but not anymore."

Interviewer: (01:53) We thank you.
Mrs. K.: (01:54) Think nothing of it.