Jiří Otradovec

"My uncle always took out the faeces. And when he carried the bucket, he used to tie up his trousers legs and stuffed in the potatoes which had been cooked for pigs. So he was carrying it secretly to get more food, because the nourishment was minimal and poor. He said that even among the guards there were all kinds of people, that it happened to him - remembering it brings tears into my eyes - that there were people like that... A guard noticed something. He met him in the corridor, and they had to salute guards, he should salute him, and my uncle couldn't bend down, make a bow, because he had the potatoes tied there. Briefly, the guard guessed it, but, like, he closed his eyes at it, as they say. He just let him pass. And all this also aroused envy among the prisoners."

"Just by his ingenuity, he got from the front line, where a lot of boys died, to the kitchen by - as we used to say - simulating, pretending to have some kind of illness. The doctor saw him limping, and that was all he needed. My gradfather put such wooden pegs in his shoes so that it hurt him a lot, and he had to limp. The army doctor looked at him walking up and down and appointed him to the kitchen."