Radomír Faltýnek

“In the morning, people woke up and found the whole village closed down, surrounded by soldiers. People who took the first train to Prostějov to work were sent back. They had to get out and go back. Children weren’t allowed to go to school, they had to turn back. And around eight o’clock, three empty buses and trucks with tarpaulins with SS men on board drove into the village. They surrounded the house where Masný and his companion were hiding. They called on them to give themselves up. One of them tried to loosen a tile from the roof, but it was covered in snow, so they shot once at it. They broke in, well, and Masný had done himself in, and the other one was found by a dog. He was hiding under an overturned tub. So they found him there.”

“Then we met up there with quite different transports. We stood there naked. We from Brno, standing under the Chestnuts, we felt like ‘porkies’. Because for instance, I weighed some seventy kilos when I arrived there. And all around us they were just skeletons, and we even had lunch packs with us. So we gave that all out on the spot. Just one of our prisoners, he was from Konice, he kept his pack and didn’t give anything to anyone.”

“An exchange of opinions. And then I say: ‘If he goes around trying to talk people to join the co-op, who should be in jail, then don’t be surprised that we’re against the idea.’ - ‘And who do you mean by that?’ he asked. I said I meant Church officer Pavlíček and policeman Potyka. He jumped up and went livid. ‘How dare you speak of those people like that?!’ I said: ‘Because I know how it is. Pavlíček was in charge of the warehouse the Germans left in Litovel, and when it was being dissolved, the amount of bakshish was such that no one could count it. And in April 1945, the other one in the neighbouring village, that was in Úžinek, he confiscated a pig slaughtered on the black market and actually threatened with the Gestapo. He took the pig away and brought the empty tubs in May, and that was that. I say that over here, a person like that stays bad.’ My cousin sat to the side of me, and I saw him clasp his hands together. And the man said we’d come to an agreement with the national district committee, and we parted ways. When we came out of the office, my cousin said they’ certainly lock me up. Why? Because those are his friends. I mean those people are actually the Krčmanites who attempted to assassinate Masaryk, Zenkl. The ones who sent the parcels.”