"The village was near Jevany, the forests of Černý Kostelec. There is such a small natural heritage area called Voděradská bučina. And that's the region of my childhood, the dreamy one. There was a bautiful pure nature at that time, there was no plastics, no garbage anywhere. I remember the meadows were blooming, lots of dill, bells and all. It does not happen that much at all today. I have really beautiful memories. And there was a pond there! And as I said, my aunt had an inn, so I used to help around, in the morning I had to help in the kitchen. But in the afternoon, when the dishes were washed, so I had the so-called free time. And right there I went to the pond along with the goose. That's where the goose were swimming, but that did not bother us. For me it was paradise."
"One, if I may, I got an experience from those times, when I was with my father. My sister, I think, she was not with us. We were in Old Town Square and we heard the marching group members, the Hitlerjugend, like the Hitler's youth. They had short trousers and white socks, they carried a banner and they had, in fact it was music. They had whistles mainly, drums and marched accross the Old Town Square. My father had a hat on his head. So we just watched it. It always caused a little horror. And it happened that one of these young men came to my dad, so I reckon one of your age and knocked the hat off my father´s head and stamped on him. And it meant that when he heard the march, he should have taken it off. Of course, the father would not have done that, and he would not know why. Well of course, daddy was very upset and got angry. Then he pointed out to mummy: "Look what the Teutons have done to me." The hat really had marks all over."
"So we waited for the Red Army to come here. And a few days ... the fifth, the sixth, the seventh... a wagon with a straw came along; one was sitting on top with the horse cover. There was one Red Army member on top of it; he was like the Asian, not from European Russia at all. He to totally apathetic and tired. It was the precursor that other Red-Armenians coming next. This is what actually happened later. But they spoiled our bathing in the pond, because they were throwing grenades into that pond, the soldiers. All the fish that were swimming there got killed by the explosion of the grenade, and they actually caught them in this brutal manner. I doubt you could say fishing. After that for us, of course, it was May, quite a hot one in 1945, but for us the pond ceased to exist. They brought women with them too, we called them soldier women. And they also bathed there and we used to come and look at them and they had such a thing all over their bodies, well so the war was just hard for them. Sometimes they caught the farmer's cow and cut out the meat that was the best and left the cow as it was. The flies were then all over covering the dead body. It was really quite a disappointment, it could be said."
Marie Kubínová was born on 1932 in Prague. Although she lived in the capital whole her life, she spent much time in the village with her relatives. They also helped the family during war by sending them extra food. What Marie remembers most from the wartime Prague was the constant darkening of windows, warning from air aids and meeting a member of Hitlerjugend. The end of war she spent in the village, where she experienced the Red Army arrival. Later she worked as a dental instrumentalist and sanitary worker and had two sons with her husband. Marie Kubínová died on 20 April 2020.
