Sudetské přízraky - Pátrání v šedých zónách paměti (2026)

“I am a descendant of Sudeten Germans. I am a descendant of a nation of collaborators. I am a descendant of those who supported joining the Reich in 1938. I am a descendant of a nation whose history remains caught between guilt, shame and suffering.” Alexandra Saemmer, a social sciences researcher living in France, traces the history of her own family, whose past remains shrouded in shame, silence and oblivion and marked by unspoken contradictions. Her family lived in Auspitz in Moravia, now Hustopeče, and was expelled after the Second World War. She reconstructs the fate of her grandparents before the expulsion and during the war, investigates whether her grandfather truly shared Nazi ideology, examines his death on the Eastern Front, seeks to clarify the mystery surrounding her mother’s origins and investigates the disappearance of her uncle. Alongside archival research and family interviews, she turns to an unexpected source: Facebook groups and online forums for descendants of Sudeten Germans, where collective memory is continually reshaped amid emotion and conflicting interpretations. The result is an intimate yet analytical “book puzzle” about one family, European history, collective guilt and the legacy we carry without choosing it. This Czech-language book explores the grey zones of memory, where personal recollection meets archival fact, family legends diverge from historical reality, and the boundaries between good and evil become blurred.