Miroslav Kočica

“It was a slave work, you cannot imagine that if you did not see it. We were cutting glass. It was the costume jewellery from Jablonec, the beads, and it was being sent somewhere to Russia. The prisoners there were less than thirty years old, because older people would not be able to endure the work load, the work norms. We toiled and toiled and toiled there. Nobody can imagine the work norms. This company, Preciosa, had a subsidiary in Šahy in Slovakia, and their civilian workers were coming there for some inspections, and one of them told us that with the norms you have here you would earn four thousand crowns if you worked in our factory. That was a lot of money. Workers working in that company were required to work only half of that norm, whereas here, they wanted to destroy you both physically and mentally.”

“We would get up at five o’clock and go to the dining hall with our mess-tins for food. Breakfast was the same all the time: coffee and a quarter of bread. Those who fulfilled the work norms for hundred percent received something extra. These extras were marked as number one, two and three. Number one meant that you got one extra egg, for instance. If somebody met the norms for more than hundred percent, he would get for example an egg and a little cube of cheese. Those who worked even more received food coupons number three and they would be getting an egg, cheese and a bit of lard. One had to work, otherwise he would not have enough to eat.”