Eva Haňková

"We spent the first American holiday, Thanksgiving, which is so important, on the boat. And there was a terrible storm. We were promised we'd get a roast turkey and after dinner there would be dancing. Nothing came of it. In the morning, the Atlantic was rough as hell. The waves were like mountains, crashing against the ship and making a terrible noise. It was a terrible noise. And people were sick. So there was no roast turkey and no dancing. Anyway, people got together in the dining room in the evening, and they gave us some lectures about America and Thanksgiving and so on, and then there was some music. So at least it might have been a pleasant evening, but it rocked us along nicely and the sea was still roaring as hell when we were going to bed. And the boat was creaking! So it was such an unpleasant feeling, the boat was creaking. But the next day it was good."

"It was called Buchenau. And it was a small village. They sent us to the Valka camp in Nuremberg, so we were only there for a few days, not much. That camp, well, if you had to, you could live there, but it was never meant for living. It was the changing rooms of the stadium that Speer had built for Hitler. Changing rooms. That's what it was, but it was a shelter. That's what we lived in. But we weren't there long. And then we moved to Frankfurt, and our relatives were there too, my husband's relatives. That's where I got this job, and when I got the job, we rented a room in this kind of dusty, half-broken house. It had been bombed out. But it was livable. So we had one room. And by then we felt: we're already living. And we already felt like Frankfurters."

"We had to cross the restricted zone. We entered the restricted zone at six in the morning and crossed the Bavarian border at three in the afternoon. So it's a long way and it's terribly overgrown, it's terribly... And the other thing is, it's also awfully easy to get lost. And asking someone to guide you - that was risky. That was very risky. So the people who managed to make it through the Iron Curtain were quite few."

"I almost didn't survive the end of the war, the last day. I was in Žďár and there really was a shooting. However, it ended there too. I know we used to listen on the 8th of May and put blankets on and listen to the BBC. Winston Churchill announced to the world that the war with Germany was ending. It was not over for us. For us, it ended in two days. So that is how it was. The last day for us was the 9th and then the 10th of May. Then it really ended. But by then there was shooting and it was something terrible. I know that I was hiding in some ditch next to the road from the SS. Everything in front of me was on fire. And around me. And SS men above me. I did not expect to survive this. Then I had such visions that people often have before death. Nevertheless, it turned out well and somehow I got out of it.''

"However, then we got to Frankfurt and both my husband and I, I was the first one to get a job and that was with the IRO, which was a United Nations agency, and they looked after refugees, emigrants who needed to resettle somewhere . Therefore, this is what we did. I got a job in this because I knew German and English well. Somehow I knew all the Slavic languages. So, I could sort through the documents of all those people. If I take it that way, it must have been a terrible situation, how many people were driven from their homes. They then ended up there in Germany. They lost everything and were looking for a new life. And there were a lot of those people. I read and sorted through their documents, so I saw what was going on. That was a terrible situation. And everything was overcome.”

„When we were there for about a year, in Žďar, President Masaryk came to visit. My grandmother made me a Kyjov costume for a little girl for this occasion. My mom and grandma got me into it and then we went into town to visit the president. People were happy back then. The Republic was happy then. And I think you can see that in that picture. That's probably why the picture is still so popular. The goodwill of the First Republic can be seen from this. Moreover, of course President Masaryk was very popular. This visit took place there in this way. I remember that my mother and I stood under the stands and waited to see what would happen. Mr. Jindra, the manager, came there and brought his students there. Then he talked to mom for a while, that is what I remember. Then they both came to me to ask if I would go up to the podium and give a flower to the old person. Many years later, my mother told me that she was very proud of me. At the age of three, not every child would do that. I do not remember that, but my parents told me that it took a lot of work to climb the stairs to the podium. However, I climbed up there and messed around. One of the officials noticed that the president was interested in what I was doing there. Therefore, he picked me up and handed me to the president. And, that was it. I remember being in his arms and he was asking me my name and where my mom was. Therefore, I tried to find it in the crowd and show it to him, but I could not. I did not find her. Then the president picked me up. Then I explained it to my grandmother at home that someone had just photographed it. In addition, it was an important picture that really survived. And it is popular to this day.”