“When I was in the Middle East, down in Palestine, I have a nice story: at Christmas we went to Bethlehem to visit a midnight mass. There were Jews, Arabs and us – Christians there. I couldn´t distinguish it. I was watching everyone as a man. I didn´t care of which religion who was.”
“Then I served in various cities in Bohemia, Slovakia and Moravia. In 1939 I left the Republic over Slovakia and Hungary. In Hungary I was imprisoned for six months. Over Yugoslavia I then got to the Middle East. There I took part in the fights near Tobruk. Then I was accepted in England. There I got first on 2nd January.”
“I took part in all possible flights. At Christmas in 1941 or 1942 I took part in an action where four planes started. Only I returned, the others were killed. I was lucky that I got out of it always. Except for the prisons. But outside I didn´t have any problem, only then, in 1948.”
“At that time they arrested a lot of us, in 1948. Although I never did anything against anybody. But I was no party member, so they locked me up for safety too. I was not long there. Then they took me out, degraded me and I worked as a driver on a building site.”
“In Palestine we went to Bethlehem at Christmas to visit a midnight mass. There were Jews, Arabs and us – Christians there. I couldn´t distinguish it. I was watching everyone as a man. I didn´t care of which religion who was.”
Bohumír Krézek was born on 23rd November 1914 in Hrušovany near Brno. He studied a classical gymnasium in Brno. After the leaving examination he worked for a short time, then he went to the military service. In Carpathian Ruthenia he studied a military school. In autumn 1939 he went over Slovakia to Hungary where he was arrested and kept in prison for six months. In June 1940 he left for Palestine and became a member of the 11th Czechoslovak infantry battalion - the East one. On 21st October 1941 he was sent to Tobruk. In January 1942 he applied for the Reserve unit of the Czechoslovak Air Force in Great Britain. Another air force training he undertook in Canada where in December 1943 he crossed to the 10th Canadian bombing and scouting squadron. In the beginning of 1945 he was transferred to the 311th Czechoslovak bombing squadron, from there to Great Britain. He came back to Czechoslovakia first on 15th August 1945. On 1st December 1948 he was released from the army and arrested. Fully rehabilitated he was only in May 1990 and subsequently he was promoted to the Colonel of the Air Force in retirement.
