"Vor der Kaserne
Vor dem großen Tor
Stand eine Laterne
Und steht sie noch davor.
[...]
Und alle Leute soll'n es seh'n
Wenn wir bei der Laterne steh'n
|: Wie einst Lili Marleen." :|
"At the entrance gate
of our barracks
a lantern just
has already begun to fade.
[...]
And then everyone will see under the lamp
that steadfast love unchanging
with the beautiful Lili Marlene."
"He had to have papers [documents], a Soldbuch [military book]. He didn't have a Soldbuch - SS-man. So, everybody had mostly military papers. Me too. And one older guy [said to me], 'Just don't throw away the Soldbuch, you have to keep it [with you] all the time and show them what you are, that you had to go to the war, in that Soldbuch. So I still had it. And I still have it somewhere in my closet at home, that Soldbuch, I still have it." - "And who didn't have it was executed?" - "Who didn't have it - SS-man. To the side. And he was gone." - "Did they shoot them or hang them?" - "They hanged them and that was it, they didn't play with it." - "Did you see that directly?" - "They shot some and hung some."
"How did they capture us? That was rough [hard]. It's normal: 'Idi sjuda [come here].' We went to the cabin in a row and then they guarded us there. And they were investigating who we were - whether it was an SS-man or a volunteer. And these were being shot right in front of us. They shot them down and that was it. It was horrible. War is bad. One is like a dog to the other."
"There were twelve of us in one big room [in the prison barracks]. In other rooms there were others [prisoners]. They captured us all and transported us immediately. The [soldier] counted us - so many and so many [prisoners to divide] here, so many there. And so they divided us. We had to sit there. We were given some water and this soup, eintopf. That's all I remember. You know, there was hunger. We'd already eaten the supplies we had, so everybody was hungry as a dog. I didn't eat much, but there were some who ate a lot, and they were shouting, 'Hunger, Hunger, Hunger!' Over and over again."
"Many innocents were killed there as the machine guns fired. And they were shouting, 'Don't shoot! Deutschen - Germans!' But [the German soldiers] fired at them there anyway and shot [their own] soldiers as well. This happened often. They didn't even have time to take the coffins away."
"There was nobody in that village anymore, nobody lived there. There was already a front. Then fighting started. All the flats were empty. Everybody was running away. Those who had cows ran away with wagons, others with cars. Everyone who had something was looking to escape from the village. Eventually the village was completely razed to the ground. Everything was plowed, everything was set on fire, everything was hin [destroyed]. So we couldn't stay there anymore."
Josef Bialas was born into a Czech family in Hlučín on 1 June 1927. His father Vilém worked as a miner, his mother Anastasie took care of the household. The family owned a small farm. Josef had older sisters Anna and Lena. After the forced secession of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, the Hlučín region was annexed to Nazi Germany and the Bialas family became Reich citizens. Josef had to join the Hitler Youth in 1938. In 1944, he was drafted into the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) to build defensive positions in Silesia against the advancing Soviet army. In January 1945, at the age of 17, he had to enlist involuntarily in the German Wehrmacht. He served as an infantryman in the ground troops. With his unit he took part in the fighting for Festung Breslau (Fortress Wroclaw). At the end of the war he was wounded in the Owl Mountains during the retreat fighting. On 8 May he was captured by the Soviet army near Hradec Králové. After a year of imprisonment in a prison camp, he was allowed to return to Hlučín. Throughout his life he worked as a labourer. In 1948 he married Karla Jendrečková, with whom he had children Erich, Zdeňka and Vilém. At the time of the interview in 2024, he was living in Hlučín. He died on April 3, 2025.
Bottom centre Vilém and Anastasie Bialas, top right Josef Bialas with son Willy, left next to him in his arms son Erich, bottom right wife Karla with daughter Zdeňka, sisters Anna and Lena with husbands Bedřich and Milan, Hlučín, 1950s
Bottom centre Vilém and Anastasie Bialas, top right Josef Bialas with son Willy, left next to him in his arms son Erich, bottom right wife Karla with daughter Zdeňka, sisters Anna and Lena with husbands Bedřich and Milan, Hlučín, 1950s
