Karel Borský recalls the life of Czechoslovak refugees in Lvov.
Karel Borský was born in 1921 in Fryštát, now part of Karviná, as Kurt Biheller.
Shortly after the occupation of Czechoslovakia, he was deported on the first transport of Jews from our territory, heading in October 1939 to the emerging concentration camp near Nisko in Nazi-occupied Poland. He escaped from the camp to the Polish territory occupied by the Soviet Union, settling in Lvov.
After being arrested and deported by the Soviet secret police, he was imprisoned in the Soviet camp of Ivanovo and put to forced labour, which cost the lives of many of his fellow prisoners. He was saved only by the formation of the 1st Čs. Army Corps in the USSR, thanks to which he was released from the gulag. With the corps, the so-called "Svoboda Army", he lived through its entire combat history.
After the war he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and changed his name. In the 1950s he was persecuted and briefly imprisoned for his Jewish origin. In 2000, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.
The interview was filmed on 6 September 1996 in Prague.