Karel Bečvář

„We were in a cinema Legiodům with my class, and they were showing the movie called Zborov. It was already near the war. And when we came outside, of course we were discussing it as boys, it was a great battle of Zborov. And a lieutenant was listening to us and said: ,So how about you, boys, would you defend the republic?‘ And we replied as one man: ,Of course, we would!‘ and we were excited. And then we were taking a walk with the class we saw the transporters with the army in a transporting cars and buses. We were waving and were glad to see our soldiers, but we didn’t have a clue what war means. They tried the gas masks on at school, it was a good thing to miss a couple of classes. We would just put the mask on and imagine we are soldiers too.“

„At around three o´clock in the afternoon a Russian soldier woke me up, who came to us. He had a machinegun, the one with a little drum. And told us he´s searching for Germans and was really thorough opening all the drawers of the night stand. Back then we didn’t know that it was really cool for them to find a watch. Then we saw some who had that many watches… Their behaviour was, I don’t want to say evil; they were people who went through a terrible hell. Surely they were different to us, but sometimes they were quite primitive, some of them. For example I met about thirty people marching together and they all had an umbrella and marched with it. Probably not to get wet by the rain or they saw it the first time in their life I don’t know. Or that happened at our home and she was a soldier. She washed herself in the toilet, in the basket and said, how silly it is done, that the water is flowing down for such a short time. I am not laughing at her, she just came from a certain environment and had it in herself. Today it is not true as the progress goes on.“