REFUGEES IN SUDETENLAND (May 1945)

The half-track is only capable of a top speed of about 20 kilometers per hour, as they proceed out of town in the hope of running into an American patrol. As they proceed on the road toward the west they are joined by others who are fleeing. There are people on foot, on bicycles and some with horse drawn wagons. They overtake a couple of ambulances that have run out of fuel and take these in tow. They hang a Red Cross flag on the half-track. Mutti feeds Jürgen by chewing up crackers and cookies and putting them in his mouth. Along the way they see much debris, and many fires where people have tried to burn what they couldn’t carry.

After about four days, during which time the war comes to an end, they think they are well ahead of the Russian advance. They almost reach Prague when they are surprised to be halted by some Russian soldiers. They presume that the soldiers are paratroopers who had been dropped well ahead of the Russian lines. A soldier takes Anna’s ring and earrings. He even takes Marianne’s earrings. They are told that anyone with weapons will be shot. Mutti digs her handgun out and drops it in the ditch. They are told that they can spend the night in a local schoolhouse. Ernst and Mutti decide to stay in the vehicle with the children. Grusla’s sister and her husband go to the schoolhouse. They do not come out the next morning. They were very old and depressed, and Mutti thinks they killed themselves in a lake behind the school.

Paul leaves the group to find a horse and wagon that he thinks may help them escape through the farm fields. He has a gold watch that he plans to use as trade. He is never seen again. Mutti thinks he was caught and executed because she heard shots nearby.  However there is another possibility. A few days after Paul left Anna returned to Neisse. When she arrived in Neisse, she found the house was being occupied by a couple of Polish soldiers. The soldiers had a couple of young girls living with them. Anna had an opportunity to speak to one of the girls who told her about a tall black haired man who had been caught in the house by the soldiers, killed and buried in the garden. Years later Anna was allowed to move back into the house and dig in the garden searching for Paul’s grave. She never found it.

The Russians direct the caravan of refugees to a large fenced in farmyard. Three Russians come and take over the vehicle. Mutti screams at the one who has gotten into the drivers seat, and she tries to open the door. He scratches her hand to get her to let go. They manage to unload most of their belongings including the baby buggy and Anna’s basket of pork meat. Mutti sees that German soldiers are being separated from civilians and makes Ernst change into civilian clothes. He wants to stay in uniform but she insists. She also gives civilian clothes to Putzig and a couple of other soldiers. She may have saved their lives, for they learn later that many soldiers still in uniform after the war ended were taken as prisoners of war and transported back to Russia. The last surviving prisoner of war returned to Germany in 1955.

The next three days are terrible. No one knows how long they will be held or what is going to happen to them. There are many refugees in the encampment. There are big buckeye trees in the farmyard that provide some shade from the hot sun. They sleep under these trees at night. Mutti manages to avoid being raped by sleeping under the baby buggy. The other woman with them is not so fortunate. There are people screaming and moaning. Many people try to commit suicide. The bodies of those that are successful are piled on the stand that the farmer used to set out his milk for collection. They are hungry but Anna refuses to open the basket of pork with so many other hungry people about.

The German soldiers dig slit trenches and hang their canvas field gear up to provide some measure of privacy. The soldiers ask the people to not soil the canvases for they must sleep on them at night. Marianne and Heiner are permitted to take water to the soldiers who are held in a separate area. Marianne finds a ruby earring that she thinks was one of those taken from her a few days before. Marianne has her sixth birthday while they are held in this encampment.

After three days the Russians announce that anyone returning to the east is free to go but anyone wanting to go west must remain. Ernst, Mutti, Anna and Putzig decide to return to Sternberg rather than stay in the encampment. They set off to the east back toward Sternberg.

Jürgen is in the baby buggy. Ernst has a heavy wooden leg with leather joints and, it is held in place by a shoulder harness. The leg stump is too short to guide the leg well so he walks with forearm crutches and somewhat drags the wooden leg along. They travel only during the day for there is a ten o’clock curfew at night. They sleep in barns and in fields. They are lucky in as much as there is almost no rain during the time they are on the road returning to Sternberg.

They walk to a small town where they ask some women if it is a safe place to spend the night. They are told that the Russian soldiers come every night demanding sex. But maybe if they can go into one of the cabins and block the door with a chair the Russians won’t discover that there is a new woman in town. This they manage to do and they move on the next day.

Late one night they arrive in a deserted mining camp. They take refuge in a cabin. Suddenly they hear people screaming ”the Mongolians are coming”. Soon there are many people scurrying about who had also taken refuge in the camp. The other refugees all start to flee in one direction. Ernst decides they will go in a different direction because of all of the commotion being made by the other refugees. He thinks they will certainly be heard if in fact, they really are being attacked. They flee and never know whether there really was a threat or not. Later they hear of a group of refugees who were killed and think that maybe this was the group that they did not join.

They come to another small town. Putzig has civilian shoes of the wrong size and they hurt his feet, so he takes them off. They ask the preacher for assistance in obtaining a horse and wagon. He directs them to the town mayor. The mayor says that the Russians have taken all of the horses except for one very old one but that they can have it. He also tells them that once they get the horse moving they should not stop it for they won’t be able to get it moving again.

With Ernst at the reins whipping the old horse and Putzig pulling at the bridle they get it moving. They set out for a nearby town in hopes of catching a train. Heiner says he has to poop. Mutti tells him to hold it, for they can not stop the horse now. Heiner says he can’t hold it. Mutti says, ”poop in your pants then”. Which, he does. When they get to the town with the train station they stop and Mutti locates a pump and washes Heiner’s pants. He doesn’t want to put the wet pants back on, but there is no choice for they have no other clothes. Putzig realizes that he has made a terrible mistake. He has left his shoes back where they borrowed the horse and wagon. But he looks so silly and pathetic standing there in a sheepskin jacket and bare feet. They all laugh.

Mutti, Ernst, the three children, Anna and Putzig abandon the horse and wagon and board a train headed in the direction of Sternberg.  The train travels only a short distance until it comes to a bridge that is out.  They must scramble across the debris of the bridge to get to the other side to catch another train.  The basket of meat is very heavy and there is no good way to get it across the stream.  Anna refuses to give it up and decides to return to Neisse to look for Paul.  She finds a Polish couple willing to carry her and her basket of meat.  Mutti learned later that after only a short distance Anna was forced off the wagon and lost her meat anyway.

When they get to the other side they find they are separated from Putzig. Marianne speculates that Putzig had grown tired of traveling with this family and their problems, and used the confusion of the crossing as an opportunity to get away.  Their original group has now dwindled to just Mutti, Ernst, and the three children.  They have to wait a long time.  While they are waiting they learn to put newspaper on top of water puddles so they can drink the water that filters through.  A train arrives, but only farmers are allowed on it.

After many more hours of waiting they finally are allowed on a train.  It is filled with people in striped uniforms from the concentration camps.  The men have long beards and gaunt faces.  Today Mutti thinks they must have been from Buchenwald.  They ride on the train for many hours.  There is nothing to eat and Jürgen is hungry and crying.  One of the men from the concentration camp has some tea.  He offers some to Mutti and she pours it into Jurgen’s baby bottle.  They get off the train at a stop where there is a Red Cross station.  They are given some food.  They get back on another train and ride for more hours.

Ernst recognizes some terrain from when he had been on maneuvers, and knows that they are not too far from Sternberg, so they get off the train at the next stop.  They walk to Sternberg.  They have been able to hold on to the baby carriage but now the wheel is broken and Mutti must continually kick it back on to the axle.  They arrive back in Sternberg the first of June.