They Pelted Me with Rotten Beets

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In April, 1947, Ingeborg Cäsar´s parents received the announcement to get ready for expulsion because they were Germans. They spent their last money on tickets to Kyjov, but when they got there instead of a train going to Germany, there was a wagon taking them to the internment camp at Svatobořice. Ingeborg Cäsar was ten years old. This is how she recalls her first impressions: “We saw double watchtowers, double fences and between them a wire fence; that was a horrible impression. There were mostly old people. Each family had someone ill or disabled.” In the camp there were no children, so Inge did not have any friends to play with. She did not even make friends at school. Not only did she have go back to the camp right after school, but the Czech children treated her in an appalling way: “They haunted me every day. They threw their schoolbags at me and when they did not have anything else, they pelted me with rotten beets,” she recalls. “Once, the teacher came to the classroom during the break and the children were spitting at me. I told her, ‘Do you see what they are doing?’ [The teacher replied] ‛After all, you are guilty!’ I did not know why and what for.” In August 1949, Inge´s family was finally released from Svatobořice.

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Ingeborg Cäsarová

Ingeborg Cäsarová, born Przybylová, was born in 1936 in Bohumín. Because both of her parents were German nationals, the family was held in internment camps after the end of the war. The first one to be interned was her father František. He was held in Ostrava. The rest of the family was interned in April 1947 and they were placed together in an internment camp in Svatobořice. Little Ingeborg was the only child in the camp so she had nobody to play with. Moreover, the kids from the nearby school harassed her because of her German origin. The family lived in Svatobořice in appalling conditions for two years before they were transferred to another internment camp in Mohelnice, (in August 1949). In Mohelnice, her father lost one of his legs due to poor healthcare and neglected treatment of his diabetes. They were only released in 1955. They were allotted a flat that was damp and had no toilet and running water. In spite of this, they were happy about being free again. Her father died shortly afterwards from the consequences of his illness. Ingeborg worked as a nurse and married Jan Cäsar. They had two children together. Currently, she presides over the Confederation of the Germans from Northern Moravia and the Orlické Mountains. She lives in Šumperk.

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Svatobořice, Mistřín

Available in: English | Česky

During WWI, a hut encampment was built in Svatobořice for refugees from Galicia. In the 1920s and 30s, the place served as a sick house, and during the occupation the location was transformed into an internment camp for citizens of Jewish descent and for political prisoners. These were usually the relatives of Czech nationals who had fled abroad during the war and were fighting in the Allied armies. Estimates suggest more than 2,600 people were interned in the camp, with an average of 1,200 people living there at once. In the years following the war the place served as an internment centre for sick and “overly old” Germans. Today, the buildings are part of a textile mill.

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They Pelted Me with Rotten Beets

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