Daily I Appear Before Your Face... (1992) - full transcript

Mr Franz Eimann was born

in Orlick? mountains in 1905

in a place which is still known

as Grundle.

As a German he was called

to the front in 1943.

His wife, children and parents

stayed home at the farm.

After the war Eimann spent

3 years in an English prison.

He wrote to the Czech authorities

for permission to return home.

He wasn't able to return

until 13 years later.

He returned with impaired

health to a "foreign" land.

He wasn't able to buy

his own cottage until 1958.

I don't know if I'll manage.

My own body knows it,

I know myself.

I'd like to be young again

but I can't go through it all again.

DAILY I APPEAR

BEFORE YOUR FACE...

A person must accept it,

he can't turn back.

One can't think back

to how it all was.

There'd be war,

he who survived

would come home again.

But that they'd drive people

out of here...

The hope that I'd return

one day kept me going.

I sometimes thought that

I'd never return.

I had unhealthy lungs...

But I always knew

His hand was protecting me.

And my family's prayers

were not in vain.

The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

He makes me lie down

in green pastures.

He leads me beside

still waters;

He restores my soul.

The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

I'm a believer, my parents

and grandparents were too.

That's how they brought me up

and there was more religious

instruction at school.

So, we were guided by this.

Most importantly, one saw what

was good a what was bad.

My grandfather was

a good example for me.

I know there is another life

after death.

One remembers how it

used to be good before.

Friends all around greeted us,

Czechs and Germans,

but times are different now.

In the past the church was full,

we had to let the old people

sit on the front pews.

We had to sit at the side altars.

It's a shame that

it's not like that anymore.

In the name of the Father,

and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

- May the Lord be with you.

- And also with you.

To prepare ourselves

to celebrate the Eucharist,

let us call to mind our sins.

I was away for 13 years,

we had lived 32 years together,

we were happy together,

one always think about it.

I didn't value our time together.

Now I know I should done

everything better.

It hurts me the most that

my wife had to work so hard,

she had to do everything herself.

I have sinned

through my own fault.

And I ask all the angels

and saints,

brothers and sister to pray

for me to the Lord our God.

If a person has faith,

everything is easier.

They say they'll be

a different life after death.

But my faith will remain.

Lord, have mercy...

Christ, have mercy...

I have to think about that.

We had good cows,

they gave good milk.

It was a wonderful life,

I was young and healthy.

I was glad when everything grew,

it was my life.

I grew up with it,

I had a good wife.

We were both very happy.

Hitler came and as a German

I had to go to the front.

I was away for thirteen years.

I was afraid how the children

would greet me.

If I was still their father.

But I was surprised how

they both hung onto me.

Especially my daughter,

I was always special to her.

I lost the best years of my life.

But I remember the envy

in people, not hatred,

there was always envy.

I always say I'm all right now,

I'm only 86,

but what when I'm really old?

My family worked on the farm

during the war.

After the war

German property was confiscated.

Fields, meadows, woods, cattle,

everything confiscated.

They didn't pay for the cattle,

they didn't even thank us.

They cut down

120-year-old woods,

took our bricks.

The neighbour took it -

he was a Czech.

He didn't want me to come back.

He wanted to own our property.

If I'd have known,

I'd come back sooner.

I was very sorry about that.

We'd reared the cows

since they were born.

My father always said

when we came home

that first the cows get fed,

then us.

That's how I've always done it.

When I came home in 1956,

they thought I'd be

in the cooperative.

But I saw how they were

treating animals there,

I was never going to work there.

Then a gamekeeper asked

if I'd work in the forest.

They'd throw stones

at the cows in the field

and in the cowsheds

they used pitchforks on them.

I couldn't look at it.

The woods made me better -

I was ill when I came home.

The fresh air,

the smell of the woods...

If I was born again,

I'd go to work in the woods.

The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want;

He leads me in paths of

righteousness for His name's sake.

Even though I walk through

the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil;

for You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff,

they comfort me.

The Lord is my shepherd...

REST IN PEACE

- May the Lord be with you.

- And also with you.

- Lift up your hearts!

- We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks

to the Lord our God.

It is right to give Him

thanks and praise.

It was terrible here after the war.

They dragged over 20 people

from De?tn?.

They had to dig their own graves.

They shot them

and they're buried there.

I knew those farmers,

they were good people,

they weren't interested

in politics - it wasn't right.

But soon everything

gets forgotten.

This is the cup of my blood,

it will be shed for you

and for all,

so that sins may be forgiven,

the blood of the new

and everlasting covenant.

Do this in memory of me.

My wife knew her parents

would be moved

so she went to help them

prepare their belongings.

She saw her father

stacking wood by the cottage.

She asked him why he was doing

that when they were leaving.

He said that the next person

would be glad of it.

One's homeland is...

how can I put it?

The place where a person

was born and grew up.

When I was in prison

I had a lot of time.

I kept thinking

about my homeland.

So I put my thoughts together

in a poem...

My father always said that

he never forgot his youth.

But he couldn't remember

what he had for yesterday's lunch.

I laughed,

but that's really how it is.

I go outside for something

but when I'm there,

I forget what it is

I came out for.

Your memory gets so bad

when you're old.

I'm not good at this.

In the morning

I think what I need to do

and what mistakes I made

so I don't repeat them.

I work early in the barn

and then go to work again.

When I go to bed I think

what I have to do tomorrow;

I say prayers for my family,

for everything.

My fingers aren't

what they used to be.

Hear our prayer,

good Lord a remain with us...

I ask God to help me do

what I must do,

to give me strength.

May the Lord's peace

remain with you always!

My grandmother had this tumour.

Everyone thought it was cancer.

She had them bring her

some holy water from France,

she had a mass

and the tumour went away.

She had a little chapel built

in memory of the event.

It's built out of stone.

The Lamb of God who

takes away the sins of the world

Have mercy upon us...

The Lamb of God who

takes away the sins of the world...

Happy are those

who are called to His supper.

Lord, I am not worthy

to receive you,

but only say the word

and I shall be healed.

I have never shot anyone.

I never had to.

I was too old

to serve in the army.

It was our task to take

munitions to the front.

But I never had to shoot anyone.

May the Lord go with you...

May almighty God bless you all,

the Father, and the Son,

and the Holy Spirit.

Go in the name of the Lord...

I'd live with my daughter,

but I've got my cats, hens...

I want to die at home.

In the quiet little village,

in a woody grove,

There is a little chapel

under the linden trees.

Beyond it is a cottage

built of wood,

There stood my poor cradle.

Childhood is but a short time,

I lived there

with my father and mother,

When she had finished her work

she sang of home.