Ing. Zdeněk Mrňa

“The farm was doing well. He had cows, so he had to supply milk. He had fields, so he had to supply corn. Our grandfather, Mr. Vávra managed to meet the supplies, so we did not have problems with them. It was going well, it was. However, all of a sudden, collectivization started and as my mum said, two men wearing black leather coats appeared in the village and started to agitate. They started to work on the establishment of a cooperative and collectivization. The way it also happened elsewhere, they chose – and Thank God, our family was not affected by it; but they chose three farmers there who were accused of failing to meet the supplies. Whether it was a real accusation or not, we know that everything was prepared and faked."

"We were staying in a hotel in Hamburg and Mr. Fabian who had accommodated us there came on 17 November in the morning with some news. He started to talk to us, we could speak German, but he was a Czech-American, so he could speech Czech well. We of course did not believe it. We did not know what it was… And most of all, we became really scared. Our children were at home. All of it. Our family. There were no mobile phones to call them. Nothing. So, we were there and monitored it.”