Refugees

Three Generations of Czech family from Iron Curtain in Tiny Compartment in a timber train.; After five months of intensive planning which included four surveys of the escape route and the construction of a special equipment to prevent suffocation Hendrich Cech a 52 year old Czech thought that he had covered every foresseeable pitfall in the escape of himself, his son and daughter-in-law and their two small children.Hidden in a tiny compartment in a truck loaded with timber, they manged to get get across to Austria in three days - without incident. The fate too a hand - the rail truck was sent back to Czechoslovakia before they could get out. Then, sick, facing death by hunger and thirst - they almost gave up. but Grandpa managed to buff the station master into sending the car - with the family on board - back to Austria. The method of escape was decided upon because Bandrich's son (Marian) (30) was the manager of a sawmill in Cervans, a town about 100 miles form the Austrian border. they arranged for the timber to be stacked on a freight car for Trieste in such a way as to leave space - little more than two yards square. They hid in this compartment - and had unsuspecting workmen put long planks across the top - forming a ceiling on;y 3 ft. 1 inches high. after the train had crossed into the Soviet Zone of Austria - some of the timbers on top became loose - and so the train was sent back to Czechoslovakia for re-stacking Bendrich and his son took their tools - and boldly reported to the station master - hied nearby workers to tie down the timber - bought food and sneaked back into their hole Bendrich talked the station master into hitching the truck to the first West-bound train - and eventually reached Wels in Upper Austria. Photo shows the family crossed the border in this open timber truck, . Through an opening at the bottom of the truck they crawled out of the train after having reached Austrian Territory

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Arranged Boldly Bought Buff Cech Compartment Crawled Daughter-in-law Decided Eventually Fate Forming Freight Generations Grandpa Hendrich Hitching Hunger Inches Incident Intensive Loaded Loose Managed Method Nearby Pitfall Planks Prevent Reached Reported Sawmill Sending Sneaked Stacked Suffocation Surveys Talked Thirst Timbers Tiny Trieste Unsuspecting Wels Workmen Yards

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