"I went to the business academy in Resslova Street next to the church, where the paratroopers were hiding. But we didn't know they were hiding there. This was only revealed after they had pulled them out. I went to school – I commuted from Čerčany – and at Charles Square, there was an awful lot of Germans. They were everywhere. They said: 'Halt!' I said that I needed to go school ... 'No school!' I said: 'What's wrong?' So we would stand there and watch. I remember as they were trying to flood them out. The water hoses were everywhere and there was an awful lot of water. Only then did we learn that it was the hiding place of the paratroopers and all the details."
(How were you treated by the Germans?) "They all knew that I was the young lady from the estate, from the office. The ones who marched in the regiments – I ignored them altogether, I had nothing in common with them. When I shot my mouth off about the Jews they got terribly mad. For the rest of the time, I was simply a young girl to them, so they would make fun of me and invite me to various birthday parties. But I flatly turned them down. I was twenty-two years old and I had a boyfriend. They didn't dare to be too cheeky with me. As the Red Army was approaching, they told me that now an Asian with slanting eyes would come and rape me."
"You know, this is in the nature of the Czechs. This consul, when he got a little drunk at a reception, he would start to weep. 'If I had kept to him (he named a leader in the metal works), I would be a minister today, but as it is, I'm just a consul'. I told him: 'comrade, would you have the guts to be a minister?' As he was drunk, he said: 'Are you stupid or something? My experts would do the work for me'. I had my share of this work. I worked my hands to the bone for the working-class cadres."
"I didn't say anything to the girls. Suddenly I got a call that I should come to the director. He asked me if I spoke Russian. I told him that I was at lesson 4. He would also ask about my parents. He was screening me. Most of all, however, he was interested in what I knew about the Soviet Union. I, such a fool, I told him that I had read Fučík – the Land where tomorrow was already yesterday. He looked at me and didn't know if I was that stupid (...) I really didn't know anything about the Soviet Union. It is a beautiful utopia (the book). Finally he told me that he'd take me with him, that I was a good worker."
"(...) Suddenly, there was no one there and nothing was happening. So I thought to myself that I had to find out if I actually had a chance. There is a so-called 'paternoster', a lift, in the building of the Broadcast. I saw Mr. Laštovička (the director of the Broadcast, future ambassador) getting inside the lift so I jumped inside the lift as well and I told him: 'excuse me, comrade director, I've entered this selection procedure but nobody is able to tell me anything. Do you think that I stand a chance?' This is my style, I'm always this direct. 'You'd like to go?' 'Yes'. 'I'll take a look at your file and I'll let you know'."
"(...) The Russians had the Germans line up there. There was one guy from the Ukraine. He had this typical Ukrainian kind of nose. He was a kind of a minion of the Germans. Sometimes he would come into my office. He would ask me to marry him. He said that he knew things would turn out badly for him. He said that I could save him by marrying him. I wasn't interested in this German – Ukrainian. Indeed, the Russians shot him. Allegedly, as the Russian was passing the line, he had him step out from the crowd and spoke to him in Russian. As he replied, he shot him on the spot."
Věra Hušková was born in Prague but she grew up and spent her entire childhood in Čerčany near Prague. She graduated from a business academy in Prague and after her graduation in 1943 she was forced to work as a secretary at an estate located nearby Benešov that served as a training ground of the Waffen-SS. She witnessed the liberation of the Benešovsko region by the Red Army. After the war, in the years 1945-1948, she worked as a secretary of the Czechoslovak Broadcast. Between 1948-1950 and 1953-1957 again, she worked as a secretary and a typist at the embassy in Moscow in its consular department. After leaving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1965 she was responsible for the organization of Russian language courses in the Czechoslovak Television. In the 1980s, she worked as an editor of programs for children and the youth. She lives in the district of Vinohrady in Prague.
