Rostislav Čech

“I live in Kolešovice 158, I was born in Dubno – in the Soviet Union (West Ukraine) in 1925. My father was a blacksmith and a horseshoer. He had his own workshop. I have got three siblings altogether, there is my sister yet. One of my brothers already died, the other one is still alive. My sister lives in Sao Paulo, in Brazil now. My Mum was a housewife because we were four children so she had plenty to do with us. There were four workers employed in the workshop, she had to cook and such, you know. I attended primary school, I finished it. Then I went to an apprentice school. I got trained as a locksmith.”

“There were about seventeen to twenty thousand people in Dubno and more than three and a half thousand Jews out of that. In our street there were only two Czechs otherwise the rest were all Jews. They were traders, so many Jews. And I, before the Germans came, I used to go to train football as a pupil. They (the Germans – editorial note) simply dug up pits in the football pitch and they shot them there in front of us and we weren't allowed to leave. We had to be in the pitch, there was a fence around. I knew all the Jews, I used to go to school with some of them, with boys. Many of them ran away, many of them stayed there. Then they dug up deep holes, there was an airport at Dubno in the direction of Křemenec...”

“We went to Dukla, they stuck us there without any previous information... there were probably spies there. They simply said - the Germans are not here anymore, they are gone. We were told that was real. There was probably bad spy work of the soldiers. We were divided. When we were approaching the output fighting position we got a terrible feeling in Machnowka because it was in a valley. There were hills all around, there were probably Germans waiting for us, it was just bad luck. There was an awful firing, too. Many were injured and killed in vain. Nobody knew what was going on. We went in columns of three. The whole brigade – the First, Second and the Third battalion. It was at the crack of dawn, we went in the gloom and they were beating us for about two hours. Everybody hid where possible because we wanted to avoid the firing. Then it calmed down because our submachine gunners came. They sorted it out there, they widened the horizon for our attack.”

“My head was hit before Dukla, there were about twelve hundred casualties there, it was just awful. The Germans were on hill tops, they could see us well down there. We were at the hills, we went but there was no point in it. The mine was dropped, its splinters hit my head, a thirteen-millimeter-long splinter. It was before Dukla, we went through such a sparse wood and I heard the mine. It wobbles, it sounds different than a grenade flying directly. Not only me, everybody went to the ground and all of a sudden there was a bang and I didn't know anything. It fell somewhere next to me when I was on the ground. The little lion saved my life because the little lions on our soldier caps were quite thick. It split just on that spot, it hit my head. It embedded itself, of course I dropped into unconsciousness for I don't know how long, I was all covered with blood. Then I saw somebody wrapping me up. He came also from Volynia, my daddy's friend, so he treated me. He dressed my wounds and asked me if I could walk. I told him there were some splinters in my legs but I hoped I was able to walk. 'Go down the hill, there is the major collection down there.' It was such a kind of place where they took the casualties from. So I got there, our doctor stopped me. He was a Jew, he was scared more than we were. 'Where are you running to?' - 'I'm not running anywhere, I'm on my way to the field dressing. I was sent down there so I'm on my way.' There were still some grenades in my pockets, I took a grenade out and I went down. There was the dressing station there. There were perfect big American tents, quilts on the ground. So we sat down and I got a tetanus vaccination. It was my sister's friend, she fainted.”