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5: CASE STUDY 2: THE CZECH/AUSTRIAN BORDER Czech soldiers dragging my husband, who was at least 15 or 20 meters inside Austria, towards the border… By the time I reached him the soldiers had him only a few meters away from the small canal. I grabbed my husband’s leg (the soldiers had both his arms) and attempted to pull him back towards safety. My husband had a bullet wound on his left leg (thigh) but I was terrified to let go [of] this leg and pull the other leg in case the soldiers jerked him away whilst I was changing legs. The soldier dragged both of us down the back into the canal where I managed to wedge my leg into the side of the canal. Another soldier grabbed my hair from behind and attempted to pull me away from my husband. We battled in the water for what can only have been a few seconds but somehow seemed like a lifetime, and then suddenly my husband was jerked out of my hands up the bank into Czechoslovakia. (National Archives, London) It is unclear what happened to the woman and her husband but the incident demonstrates the brutality of the Iron Curtain and the devastating effects it could have on the people around it. Some concluding points The Podyji Park is an area of great beauty and it is easy to understand that tourists keep coming back here to enjoy the nature through hikes, bike rides and horse rides. It is difficult to imagine how different the area would have been with fences, watch towers, mines and patrolling soldiers. This study has helped to understand how this area has looked and functioned throughout its history, from Castle Park, to military zone to national park. It has been possible to gain an understanding here of the monumental infrastructure that was the Iron Curtain and an appreciation of the difficulties getting across this landscape as an unauthorized person. Even more than along the Italy/Slovenia border the need for control here was intense. Instead of making sure traffic across the border was controlled the aim here was simply not to have any traffic across at all. Mostly, however, this study has shown an insight into the lives of the many soldiers who served here. When you walk around a site, such as the border guard stations, where so much remains although in a state of ruination it becomes clear that the once major feature of this place, the soldiers themselves, have all long gone. Reading ethnologist Susanne Wollinger’s study of a brigade in Sweden 177
AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE IRON CURTAIN (2000) it becomes very obvious how silent the sites I visit are. Wollinger explains how the noises of TVs, record players and conversations would flow through the corridors in the evening, the sound of military boots against the flooring and the sound of Velcro as someone opens their uniforms as they enter a building (Wollinger 2000:75 and 62). She also speaks of the smellscapes of the corridor, particularly on Wednesday evenings, the usual time for a night on the town, when the smell of deodorant and aftershave hung heavily in the air. The sites I visit are silent and where smells are involved they are more likely to be connected with the buildings’ degeneration than their previous occupants. But there are still traces left of those who once spent two years of their lives here. Those who patrolled, monitored and guarded the borders but also lived here and carried out their everyday duties, both official and private. Their lives here both on and off duty have come to linger through the remains they have left behind, both at the site itself and through their memorabilia displayed on their website and these things speak loudly. In the absence of people the things themselves become more clear. Although a lot of the buildings have fallen into disrepair and most of the furniture has been removed walking around in this former guard station still gave a sense of how life here would have been like. It is obvious from graffiti in which soldiers were counting down the days that if they had been given a choice many of them would not have been here. This was part of the obligatory two year military service that all Czechoslovakian men had to do in their late teens and early twenties (conscription to the army took place after they had finished their studies and therefore the age of the soldiers varied somewhat). After an initial month of training at the Jemnice facility the soldiers spent the remainder of the time in one place, transfers being unusual. It is clear from the graffiti but especially the “graduate drawings” that were produced by the soldiers themselves and the many photos displayed on the army forum that a real sense of camaraderie developed and that contacts have been kept also after the soldiers left the camp (Army Forum Website). Of course, one has to remember that the people displaying these pictures and keeping up contacts on this website are a very small part of the all the soldiers that came through these border guard stations. Many of the former soldiers that are not taking part in these kinds of forums may not feel the same. There is a great stigma attached to any act that is related to communism or former communist activities. The different areas within the study area also display slightly different pictures of the soldiers. What is interesting is that the guard hut located 178
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An Archaeology of the Iron Curtain
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An Archaeology of the Iron Curtain
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Contents Acknowledgements 11 CHAPTE
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The end of a journey 212 Sammanfatt
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AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE IRON CURTAIN
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CHAPTER 1 Introduction Standing on
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1: INTRODUCTION carried out of the
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1: INTRODUCTION they may be… It i
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1: INTRODUCTION where the observer
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1: INTRODUCTION former Iron Curtain
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1: INTRODUCTION criticism from othe
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1: INTRODUCTION itioned somewhere i
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1: INTRODUCTION World War II dividi
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CHAPTER 2 A physical metaphor Concr
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2: A PHYSICAL METAPHOR established
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2: A PHYSICAL METAPHOR The changing
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2: A PHYSICAL METAPHOR the events t
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2: A PHYSICAL METAPHOR As time has
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2: A PHYSICAL METAPHOR highly influ
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2: A PHYSICAL METAPHOR popular idea
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Figure 16: Postcard of the newly op
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402 Kojsko Hum 402 THE OSIM
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Figure 50: Map demonstrating the bo
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Page 128 and 129: CHAPTER 5 Case Study 2 The Czech/Au
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Page 216 and 217: Sammanfattning (Summary in Swedish)
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Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations
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33. Sofie Bedford, Islamic activism
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67. Anne Kaun, Civic Experiences an
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Stockholm Studies in Archaeology Se
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29. LINDGREN, Christina. 2004. Män
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The Iron Curtain was seen as the di
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