Oldřich Halad

“The old, children and women were carted off, men remained in small numbers. All of a sudden it was as if there were no German soldiers, only the old, the young and old women. They were hidden in forests or ran away to Germany as they didn't want to have anything in common with the Republic. I eventually found out as it is said, it happened in a wild way... It could have happened at the beginning when individuals having nothing to do with the Czechoslovakia liberation, took over the power in the cages. They did all they wanted there. It depended very much on the people who were there. When there was a good man, the displaced Germans had more or less good times. But when there was a humankind scum, he behaved accordingly.”

“They bombarded the hospital – there was also a railway station there, so they bombarded both the hospital and the railway station. I managed to hide in an air-raid shelter. Then, when it was all over, the whole hospital department was totally demolished, all the buildings and everything. Those who could still walk and were a bit healthier, those got on top of the hill above the hospital. We saw an invasion in Salerno from there – Naples and steaming Vesuvius on the left hand side, on the right hand side there was the sea and many ships, hundreds of ships, we saw only little clouds of steam. We were happy that the invasion was there, that we could run over to the other side.”

“It's a real toil, it's toil from dawn to dusk, which is worthless. All the war decorations are useless at the time you are doing it. You are not doing it because of the decorations themselves but because of the bunch of guys who are out there, who fight against the enemy in order to win or not to lose.”

“The four or five years after the Nazi arrival were long enough to evert thinking of all pupils who attended Czech schools and who were not told about Czech history at home. It was compulsory for them to be Hitlerjugend members, they had to sing songs, put their hands up and heil. That was the way to Germanize Czech boys who were later drafted to the German Armies.”

“The feelings towards those who were transported got simply lost. It happened so because we were busy with our own troubles, we were worried to find our relatives so that we could allocate those who came with empty hands. All those Jews were soldiers who experienced the war, who left the Republic, who returned and found no families, nothing. There was no mercy on those who should have been displaced. It was totally out of the question. It was a kind of a double sword. If there was anyone pointing at that, there was an answer for him: 'Where would you be now in case they had won?' Eventually, the displacement simply happened without any deep considerations of its bringing any injustice to the others.”

“I spent one more night up there and I went down the next morning and I stood by them. They were fixing a tank there and were repairing a bridge so that the tank didn't break. That was why they were making it stronger. I spoke to one of the Englishmen: 'Io ceco' (I'm Czech) and he didn't reply. He gave me a cigarette. I lit the cigarette even if I didn't smoke. I said again: 'Io ceco, ceco, cecoslovak...' (I'm Czech, Czech, Czechoslovak...) Then he gave me a piece of chocolate and he kept on doing something. Then came a jeep with a leader. They were talking with each other about this and that. I went to the leader and I said: ' Ich bin Deutsch, deutsch Soldat' (I'm German, a German soldier) and 'Czechoslovakia.' I stopped and I repeated it once more. Then he took out a pistol right away. They frisked me just in case I had a weapon. I got into the jeep and they took me to the Allies' Headquarters.”