Květuše Dostálová

"We were there... my mother packed us up, she had nowhere to put us, she had parents far away in Hlučín. So, she had to drag us everywhere with her, I was six years old, my sister was four. So, we came, it was allowed, but there was a Gestapo man sitting on a chair and listening to what we were saying, so it was this kind of talking, we were afraid that they would keep us there too. And we brought some fruit to my father, I remember two pears, and my sister, because she was a glutton, ate one of the pears right away. So, then we gave her a talk, such a four-year-old child, it was impossible. Otherwise, he stroked our hair a lot, saying how clever we, little girls, were, I remember that. But we always brought something to eat for our father, because they were always hungry there, even in Olomouc. And that was through the warden whom we bribed. Mother had a brother in Prague who sold shoes. Oxford shoes and such. So, she always grabbed some of the shoes he sent her and pushed it to the guard, because there was a shortage of them, and then he made sure that we at least saw my father waving in the window across the yard."

"There wasn't southern fruit at all. There were queues for oranges and everything. There was no toilet paper either. So, it was like, pretty much this... The merchants were absolutely desperate that they couldn't satisfy people. People were going mad, forming crowds."