Ukrainian girls and partisans

“There were many young girls working with us, and we talked to them. One day, when we were north of Lviv, there was one road mender, he was a German from the Reich. And one day, while he was working in the forest with these young girls, he dared to make some advances to one of them. When he came there the day after, a partisan stepped out of the forest and fired a burst from a submachine gun at him. My boss sent me there the following day. What was I to do? We buried him in the morning and the boss told me to go there instead of that guy. So I took some ten girls, we got onto a truck and rode there. Then I asked one girl to watch one side of the road bend, and another girl was to watch the other side in case there was someone coming. I sat down on the roadside with the others and talked to them, because I knew they were watching me. Some three or four days after, while I was sitting there like that and chatting with them, a really beautiful girl came to me and said: ´Look, you speak our language, you know German, we would need you.´ I told her: ´You know what, I want to get home.´”

• born May 2, 1923 in Dolní Čermná near Lanškroun
• 1942: drafted to the German army, joined the Organization Todt
• 1942-1944: serving on the eastern front as a locksmith and road mender
• 1944-1945: construction worker building a factory for Messerschmitt fighter planes in Ingling in Bavaria
• 1948-1950: compulsory military service
• 1951 (December) - 1954 (April): forced to serve in the PTP