Charlotte Galambošová

“The Germans already knew they lost the war. There was a deaf tailor in our village. He ran somewhere, not knowing where, and the German shouted at him to stop. But he couldn’t hear him and so the soldier shot him dead. It was just at where we were hiding in the cellar. He wore a strip but I don’t know what his rank was exactly. A man came and asked him whether he realized what he had just done – killing a man who couldn’t hear him at all. But the German didn’t give a damn. ‘We have already lost the war anyway,’ he said and waved his hand.”

“The Russians were leaving and we all ran to the main road so that we could see ourselves. It was as if all the Russians who were still present in the region gathered at once. They rode on horsebacks in the direction of Opava and it was as if in a movie. We stood by the road when one of the soldiers pulled out a coin from his shoe – a Ruble, probably – and threw it to us. They were dressed as Cossacks. This was the end of the war; one that I’ll never forget.“