Statement no. 12

Dorit Ternerová:

Exhumation in the Town of Teplá

Town of Teplá, August 28th, 1945

Statement

on the exhumation in the town of Teplá, written with Dorit Ternerová, born 28. 9. 1925, residing in Prague XII, Lucemburská 1., who was present during the exhumation.

On July 28th, 1945, at about 8:30 in the morning, the exhumation in the town of Teplá began. Present were Czech officials, two Americans, and two doctors from Mar. Lázně, and one doctor's assistant.

These are the names of the German prisoners who buried the dead bodies:

Frant. Pauer, Alexander Wagner, Jan Schmidt, Frant. Rikauer, Arnošt Meier, Hugo Langhans, Frant. Koch, Franz Kroy, builder in Klášter Teplá, who ordered the burial of the corpses in this location, Ferdinand Deutsch, Jan Schwende – coach driver, Herman Paulmann, former regional commander in the town of Teplá, Vilém Schubert, former policeman in the town of Teplá.

The prisoners placed the unearthed bodies onto the tables and the doctors conducted an exhumation. They tried to find out whether there were any injuries on the bodies and searched their pockets. In the pockets of one woman, they found a Premienscheine from the concentration camp in Flossenbürg. Almost all of the dead bodies were poorly dressed and had unsuitable or no footwear. An interesting finding was that some women had only numbers and one had a red triangle. They must have come from various concentration camps because the number fonts were different. The exhumation lasted until 1:30 PM.

At 5 o’clock in the afternoon a ceremonial burial was held. The caskets of the 26 dead were placed onto 4 decorated carts that stood before the town hall. The town hall was also decked out. At least one German from each house had to attend the funeral. All of the Czechs were there. Mr. Marel spoke, and called for a minute of silence to honor the dead. The Americans were officially invited by the president of the regional council, but none of them came. And not only that. They behaved in very poor taste. They made a mockery out of it, walked back and forth, took pictures, and laughed with the German girls, which resulted in the arrest of 3-4 girls. Three priests were present at the funeral. They organized the funeral and the funeral procession walked to the cemetery, where priest Atanas conducted a very nice eulogy. The Czechs carried the caskets from the carts to the graves and lowered them down.

Signature:

Ternerová Dorit

Statement accepted by:

Berta Gerzonová

Signature of witnesses:

J. Goldstein

Dr. Robert Weinberger

Accepted on behalf of the Documentation Campaign by:

Scheck

On behalf of the archive:

Alex Schmiedt