Mgr. Anna Levová

“Our family, the Doležals, learnt about it from uncle Větrovec. He was a shoemaker and thus it was probably easier for him to hear some rumours compared to people who didn’t work directly with customers. He heard that something was about to happen, and the two families thus packed their things and ran to hide in the forest. But the other family, the Mikulec family, didn’t believe it and they stayed in their house, and therefore they experienced unimaginable horrors there, because everyone who ran out of the house was shot, and the houses of those who stayed inside were put on fire. The village Janova Dolina thus burnt to the ground. They survived. They survived and told others about it. They didn’t believe that something could happen to them, but in spite of that they had prepared as much water as they could and thus they managed to put down the fire and survive. Whenever they would later talk about it, they would never forget to mention that there was some beam which was on fire and that the men helped to extinguish it by peeing on it.”

“My cousin Jiří Větrovec was working as a tour guide and he was going to the Soviet Union and he thus visited those places and found out that the village Janova Dolina no longer exists, that it was basically part of Bazaltovo.”

“I completed my studies here; I graduated from the faculty of pedagogy. I graduated in 1968 and in 1969 my brother emigrated. They summoned me to the district committee and asked me: ‘Comrade, what kind of intercourse do you have with your brother?’ I am naturally quite unabashed, and so I cheekily replied that it certainly was not a sexual intercourse because that would not be possible. As I went to the meeting, I already brought my notice with me because it was clear to me that if I didn’t agree with the brotherly assistance of the Soviet army, they would hardly allow me to continue teaching. Well, they didn’t. As soon as they found out what my attitude was, they told me to find another job.”

“Our family re-emigrated after the war. All the people about whom I know were thus here. As far as I know, one of my aunts went to Poland because she married a Polish man. There were people of all nationalities living in Ukraine. My grandma and grandpa had been born here in Czechoslovakia, and they had been taken to the Volhynia region when they were little children. (So did they eventually get back to Czechoslovakia after all those years?) My grandma did, but my grandpa did not return anymore, he died in Volhynia. But grandma did come back to Czechoslovakia.”