Ludmila Machalová

“I went to them to the Jewish cemetery. Irča took me to a grandma who was already a really old lady. They were called Pöck. The old man walked in a long black coat, a hat on his head. And they had only one room. There we practically all had only one room. Only with us, where the room was, as I talked about it, where the dead were put for a while, so it was also for habitation. My mother made a kitchen from a hall. [The floor] was of irregular stones and uphill. She had a stove built of bricks. They connected it to the oven that was in the hallway. There was a lot of space, the shape of a piano, and there were baked Matzos.

“[We told each other] we were going to bed and sleep, but Jarka wanted to pee. I put her in the dormer and held her because there was still a bit of roof and a downpipe. I held her like a little kid, even though she was three or four years old. And I heard hooting and a little smoke. I say, 'Kids, something's going on!' And now they started hooting. The flames and firefighters were coming. At that time, all firefighters had bells in their apartments. A bell rang at the Pavliks. Mr. Pavlík got dressed quickly. Mr. Mikulík was already riding a bicycle from the other side from the end of Plačkov. We all leaped into the dormers and heard it howl, whistle, everything ... The temple was burning. This time they put out. But not the second time. It is said that the Flag makers set it on fire.”