Olga Chotová

"The bombing has been frequent since 1944. The first raid took place in such a way that people didn't really know what was going on. Because the German units, placed around Litvinov, were shooting very often, the people did not realise. I was playing in the garden and the people around us started screaming from the windows, that they shot a plane above Medibori, at that time, Schoenbach, and that we shall rum home immediately. When I started to attend school, during the raids, the pupils which lived nearby were sent home, myslef included. The pupils who lived far away were sent to the school cellar. The interesting thing was, that everything always run very smoothly, in a very disciplined manner. The pupils were silent, they did not dare make a sound and obediently walked into the cellar. There was always a pre-emergency. Due to that, we usually made it home in time. And my father even managed to return home on a bike from the chemical factory, because he always said, that when we are supposed die, then together. Sometimes he did not manage that, when the raid followed immediately after the pre-emergency. Once the raid was so strong, that we believed we will not leave the cellar alive, whole house was shaking, the lights went out, the doors to the cellar were blocked. The bombs accidentaly hit the church in Litvinov.

"My father warned me because there was a looting right away that if I brought something home he will beat me up. My father didn't beat me up, but he had a strong hand and he meant it. I was just watching people from the two hotels near the center carry salami, butter and other food. I just stared enviously on what I had never seen during the war. But I didn't bring anything home. The big looting didn't start until a few days later when the people returned from their holidays. There was a lot to loot because there were a few factory villas around Litvinov. There was a lot of nice cut glass, furcoats, etc. These people went back and took the looted things with them to somewhere around Central Bohemia, to several villages. The Czechs who left before the war returned again, mostly back to their homes. Sometimes, they had problems with the looting guards in their houses. I'm just saying this because it is interesting."