Kraslice

the site of the escape of prisoners from a death march · 210, Rotava, Czech Republic

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Don't give a crap! Move on!

Available in: English | Česky

In April 1945, a group of prisoners, including Miloš Pick, arrived in the vicinity of Kraslice. The prisoners, who were in a destitute condition, had marched for many days from the concentration camp in Meuselwitz. In the mountainous area around Kraslice, it very often happened that the guards disappeared out of sight for a moment while in a bend. Miloš Pick and three other prisoners decided to try their luck and to escape: "When we thought that the air was clear, we jumped into the ditch and started running away, up a nearby hillside. Just in this very moment, one of the SS guards, who happened to be one of the toughest, appeared. It was the constantly-screaming, furious Rottenfűhrer Hack. He jumped across the ditch and immediately started to load his gun to show us he was serious about it. He screamed: 'Zurűck!' It was really bad," Pick recalled. Fortunately, something totally unexpected happened which saved us: "A friend of mine, Milan Weiner, who was running in front of me, turned around and in an authoritative manner shouted: 'don't give a crap boys, move on!' Then he waved at that SS-man and addressed him in the following way: 'Auf Wiedersehen nach dem Kriege, Herr Rottenfűhrer.‘ The SS-man was so shaken by this that his rifle sunk to his knees. He turned around and stumbled back to the road: 'Los, weitergehen!‘ He left us alone."

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Miloš Pick

Miloš Pick was born in August 16th, 1926, in a Jewish family in Libáň, where his grandfather and father owned a small factory. After the Nazi occupation he joined local resistance movement. With his friend he printed and distributed leaflets. In January 1943, Hájek was transported to Terezín. He became a member of Communist Party in 1943. In September 1944 was moved to Auschwitz. He managed to escape death in a gas chamber by reporting to Mengele odler age and a locksmith profession during the first selection on the ramp, after he got a warning from his friend Gert Körbel. Later Pick was sent to forced labor in Reich. From November 1944 to April 1945 he had been working in a factory in Meuselwitz-Buchenwald. At the close of the war in April 1945 Hájek escaped with a few friends from a death march back to Bohemia. All the Jews transported from Libáň except Miloš Pick and his sister Soňa have perished. Their parents were murdered in Auschwitz. After 1948, Miloš Pick had been working in the State Planing Commision. He was expelled from the Communist Party after the soviet invasion in August 1968.

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Kraslice

Available in: English | Česky

The settlement of Kraslice was created by merging several smaller settlements situated in the valley of the Svatava River below the Kraslický Castle. Already in 1370, Kraslice was granted town rights. After the constitution of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Czechoslovak troops occupied the town in order to prevent the local Germans from breaking away from Czechoslovakia and creating the province of "Deutschböhmen." In 1921, events came to a head and martial law had to be declared. At that time, Kraslice counted twelve and a half thousand inhabitants of which only one hundred and seven were Czech. During the Second World War, several prison camps and a branch of the Flossenbürg concentration camp were created in and around Kraslice. After the expulsion of the Germans in 1946, the city was inhabited by Czech population.

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Don't give a crap! Move on!

Miloš Pick