Ing. Josef Lexa

"They wanted to make a cooperative there [in Temelínec]. They needed the small ones, the small farmers, to go there. My father didn't want to go there. He didn't give them any application. He gave it to them only when there were more of them, when some of the farmers were already there. So he didn't give it until quite late. When he had to. It was said that it would be difficult for him there, that they would give him something else somewhere else [they would change his field]. They would give him what was neglected. Because the fields that the farmers didn't cultivate, those were overgrown. They didn't produce much there because they didn't put fertilizer there, they didn't have the money."

"Then a whole division of German soldiers suddenly arrived in Temelín when the uprising was already in Prague. We were already going there. Somehow the national anthem was being sung, so we went there to see. The Germans were lying all over Temelin. There were ponds, it was dry, it was warm. They had their cars aside and they had lunch there. We went there, they didn't do anything to us. Nothing. They just didn't notice us and we didn't notice them. But at school, as there were national guests. The women. If they said anything to them there, they told them to go away. They ran. They told the soldiers they were chasing them away. So the commander said he was going to have the village burned down or something. Some people fled into the forest, others were hidden. Now there were some Czech partisans like the people from the village. About four of them had something and went to disarm the Germans. Of course they didn't leave. They took them right away, they were going to shoot them. One woman begged the commander not to shoot, she knelt down in front of him. So they put them in the post office, there was a gendarmerie there. The Czechs were afraid that something would be done to them. But the Americans were already in Vodnany. They were, as Chechenice was, as the railway was, they had a demarcation line there. So they were called there to come and disarm the Germans. They couldn't get through. Somehow for a long time they were calling from the post office there. It took a long time. Then they [the Americans] said they couldn't go there, that the Russians would be there. Then someone went there on a motorcycle to convince them. The commander somehow took it and sent the Americans there. It was Sunday, about ten o'clock two small tanks on wheels, about two trucks and about 15 Americans arrived. But they were some Czechs, a lot of them could speak Czech. They disarmed the Germans. The Germans gave in, I guess they guaranteed them that they could go to Vodnany. So they disarmed them all. There was a pile of those weapons. They put it on the cars. We boys used to fly there. The Americans loaded it up and left again. The Germans took off."