Zdeňka Jiříčková

“Russian soldiers received an order to kill Janek (my husband), and he was thus hiding, and then he ran to Mařka to our garden, and I went there and told them. Then there was 5th May and the end of the war and everybody was already celebrating but I was crying because Janek was not coming home. People felt sympathy for me. He eventually returned, but only on May 25th, and this day thus marked the end of the war for me. There was a lot to celebrate: the Russians are already taking over, and everything will be fine for us from now on, and the Germans are already gone. There were many partisans during the war, and they were stealing hens and rabbits from people who lived in the pastures, and these people then had nothing to eat and they cursed the partisans. Well, but the partisans were fine guys, after all.”

“The priest Mr. Matoulek and Mr. Kopřiva were always the first customers who came to buy milk from me in the mornings. They liked to chat with me, they already knew me and they were asking me about things and I was talking to them. One girl was coming to the shop to help me and in exchange for her work I sold her a can of butter milk for her pigs.

“Water from the river flooded the streets of the town. Pravdica’s house was completely destroyed by the flood, only part of the roof was left.”