Jarmila Jarkovská

„There was a rate of one to five in a loan office and it was zero there. So I went to exchange 175 thousand and came back with seven thousand. And daddy told me: ‚ So now I can go hang myself. You are about to marry, your brother Jenda is going to marry and we got nothing at all.‘ So I said: ‚Not like that, daddy. A unit it was called at the cooperative a working unit was eight crowns. (Mr Jarkovský, inhabitant from Polánek: ‚Yes, we started at eight crowns at the beginning of the year and got more later.‘) And my daddy said: ‚So I am going to hang myself.‘ And I replied: ‚Oh no, daddy, we´ll work for living!‘ My mum could not work anymore, she had her spine twisted, daddy was ten years older so I said: ‚We can support you, daddy...!‘“

„It was harder... Those Germans were not pardoning anyone... Who had any provisions saved, when a requisition came, then they shot the farmer up in the loft at granary without any talks. My daddy was lucky to speak German as he attended three years of elementary school in Germany. As grandad put his somewhere in Broumov for a pay to a director´s family, daddy learnt a perfect German. So when a requisition came to us, he greeted them in German and they turned round and went away...“