Dangerous Borderlands

Hildegarda Zemanová spent her childhood in Nová Ves, which was a village near to the German border. In 1938, the tension in the borderlands was running high. Hildegarda Zemanová remembers that some Germans ran to Germany then from there they made night inroads to Czechoslovakia as the members of the Sudetendeutches Freikorps. There were several assaults in the surroundings of Nová Ves. On September 21, 1938, the Freikorps attacked the department of finance guard in Nová Ves. One member of the finance guard died during this assault. Hildegarda Zemanová´s family was affected by this attack. Her mother knew the guards very well because she used to go there to do the cleaning and washing. And also Hildegarda Zemanová, who was twelve, spent a lot of time with them. “The head of the department was married to a German lady, and she was afraid because he was not at home over night. My sister and I used to go there for the nights so she was not alone. You know, she lamented and she was afraid. When there were some shootings she passed it on us. We perceived it very strongly.”