On 15 March 1939, Hitler’s troops march into the “rump” of Czechoslovakia. German-speaking residents of the Iglau language island celebrate the invasion as a liberation. On his arrival from Berlin, Gottlob Berger, director of the SS Head Office, declares Bergersdorf to be his own, and therefore an SS village. Without much further thought, most of the men then join the general SS. Local mayor Wenzel Hondl is also caught up in events. As the scene grows ever darker, more and more mothers are left grieving their fallen sons. Once the war is finally over, Russian and Romanian forces occupy the villages. Hondl is left to muse bitterly: “We wanted to free ourselves from the Czechs and fell instead into Hitler‘s hands.” The final catastrophe comes in May 1945…

Herma Kennel’s historical novel describes these brutal events with an objective eye. Her book ultimately prompted a police investigation and the official opening of the mass grave she refers to. The press in the Czech Republic and abroad reported on the grim discoveries in Budinka meadow for weeks, and the site soon came to symbolise the repressed history of the aftermath of the Second World War. A short afterword by the author looks back on the impact of her book.