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So that's how our stay in Ravensbrück ended. So we set out for home. I weighed around 50 kilos, and my mother was emaciated, and had only around 40 kilos. But nothing worked anywhere. We didn't know what to do. So 14 of us got together and set out for home. In one German town they stopped us, that we couldn't go any further, as the Russians were approaching. As long as we were meeting American soldiers, they weren't taking any notice of us. But when the Russians arrived, they wouldn't leave us alone. On our way home, we passed many empty houses, and we spent the night in one of them. Some Russians arrived as well. So right away I told my mother that we should go sleep up in the attic, in the straw. It's a good thing we did. Because in the morning, when we woke up, the others told us that those disgusting Russian soldiers had raped them.
The Russians then told us that we couldn't continue onwards because we were spreading typhus. That was of course not true. But they needed someone to work for them. There were 14 of us women, and they had us sew uniforms for them. About four of us knew how to use a sewing machine, and while we sewed the uniforms, the rest sewed on buttons and so on. Well, it was quite bad. What else can I say.
These Russians were a motorized brigade and were soon supposed to go home. So as the leader of our group of women, I went to the captain and asked him if we couldn't go along with them. He told me that they'd only be going to the border, and so I asked him if they wouldn't at least take us that far. They took us to As. There at the border they asked us right away if we were Czechs. But we weren't. We were all only Slovak women. They said that Czechs had priority as far as getting to Prague went. But when no one else arrived, they ended up taking us to Prague. From Prague it was then relatively easy. We got to Slovakia, to Bratislava, and from there my mother and I returned home to Bolmut.
The Russians then told us that we couldn't continue onwards because we were spreading typhus. That was of course not true. But they needed someone to work for them. There were 14 of us women, and they had us sew uniforms for them. About four of us knew how to use a sewing machine, and while we sewed the uniforms, the rest sewed on buttons and so on. Well, it was quite bad. What else can I say.
These Russians were a motorized brigade and were soon supposed to go home. So as the leader of our group of women, I went to the captain and asked him if we couldn't go along with them. He told me that they'd only be going to the border, and so I asked him if they wouldn't at least take us that far. They took us to As. There at the border they asked us right away if we were Czechs. But we weren't. We were all only Slovak women. They said that Czechs had priority as far as getting to Prague went. But when no one else arrived, they ended up taking us to Prague. From Prague it was then relatively easy. We got to Slovakia, to Bratislava, and from there my mother and I returned home to Bolmut.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Magda Frkalova