The first liberated municipality

In March 1945, Erich Plachtzik, who was fourteen years old at that time, witnessed frontline battles near the village of Sudice, which eventually became the first liberated municipality in the area of the Protectorate. The front stopped near Sudice for several days and the village was heavily bombarded. “On Wednesday evening, the artillery opened fire. But the shells fell neither on the road nor on the square, but on a meadow. All the locals were packing up their things and left the village that night. They were ready. The farmers with their horses. We also left for Kobeřice, where our grandparents lived. On Thursday afternoon, the village was bombarded by airplanes. They used phosphor and everything burst into flames. Everything was in havoc, mainly the upper road. The lower part of the village was mostly spared. At night the Russians came, but the village was almost deserted. My grandma stayed in the cellar together with three other old women. She said it was horrible when the bombs were falling. The explosions rocked the walls, but they survived. When the Russians came, the civilians became a hindrance and all of them had to leave. The three old women were transported to Ratiboř. They could come back only after the front had moved further,” recalls Erich Plachtzik. When the Russian soldiers came to Sudice, he and his brother and parents were hiding at the house of their friends in Nové Lublice located about forty kilometres away from their home village. Erich Plachtzik died in 1938. Source: Memory of Nations