We Need You to Go Back to Czechoslovakia

Julie Hrušková got to the refugees camp Wegscheid on March 16th, 1949. “The camp was halved by the road. One of the parts was for the Jews and the other for the rest of us. We used to go by the camp, lay on the grass, look at the Alps and talked about everything,” she recalled. Julie soon became bored with the camp life and during the first walk to Linz she met American soldier Frank Farnetti. They fell in love and soon arranged to be married. Julie moved to his place and got pregnant. Unfortunately, Frank was called to Germany. Julie promised him not to go back to the camp, but she could not stand the loneliness and went to see her friends. That was the decision that changed her life forever. Her friends persuaded her to go back to Czechoslovakia and to help to some people across the border: “Ruda started to praise me how good I am in the woods, that we got safe across the border and so on. And so they talked me into it. We got the identity documents, (so-called Ausweis), in case they check us in the Russian zone.” Our mission was to accomplish the CIC task. Julie set of for the journey that would end badly – arrest, brutal interrogations, abortion, and eleven years of imprisonment. She never saw her beloved Frank again.