Lidmila Černá

“That was terrible too, how those Germans were in those villas in Zlíchov. And it was cruel, I was already nine years old by then. They had them dig a grave. Putting aside the fact that they had them dig a grave so they could shoot them into it afterwards, our Germans. But there was and old man there and they pinned that swastika on his back, and that was too much. That was so cruel that they shouldn’t have done it, gone ahead and humiliated him like that. I remember that. I remember how I cried then and mom said: ‘Get away from there, or there’ll be trouble for us, too.’ They were those people who for the whole war had been hiding in the basement afraid, and when they war ended they signed up and took revenge like that. My brother and I went with my mom to see it. Mom wanted us to see it with our very own eyes how things were. We didn’t sit around at home reading fairy tales. That’s why I remember these moments.”

“There were patrols, you could go a few meters past the house but not any further because they would catch you immediately and take you to the station. They would come to our house – it’s surrounded by beautiful nature there – a family of doctors named Kuthan would come visit, he was an optician and his wife was a dentist. They were Evangelicals from church, Mom would always have them over in the summer, we all spoke to each other informally, I had known them since I was a little girl. Once they went to forage some mushrooms to the forest, and they probably ended up going a bit too far. A soldier popped out of nowhere, brought them back to us saying that they were coming to the station. Mom answered: ‘Excuse me, what is your name?’ He answered: ‘My name is Masaryk.’ And she said: ‘Such a beautiful name and this is how you act?’ And would you believe that he didn’t take them in after that. His name was Masaryk, that soldier. Well, the barracks were situated directly in Bystřice and still a bit into the forests there, but I can’t remember right now what it’s called there, Hůrky, everywhere. It was full of soldiers there.”