Věra Pittermannová

"That's what I wanted to remember too, back when the war was over, just after the war, and the Russians drove tanks through Slabce, so of course, they were soldiers, they were very hungry. That takes me back to the year forty-five. What was moving they killed and ate, there's no other way to put it. There was a kind of militia and they herded all the women and children into the woods and we lived for two days, two nights in bunkers. We hid there because we were afraid."

"I was in the fourth grade and it was already obvious that the war would be over, the year forty-five was approaching. We had a wonderful teacher, Sam Petranek, and he was telling us the history of the Czech nation, and when the door opened, the headmaster came in with two guys in leather coats, and it was the Gestapo. They arrested the dear teacher and we were as quiet as foam because we were so afraid of what was going to happen. The headmaster stopped classes and we had to go home. After the war, it was the year forty-five, May, it was wonderful, people were rejoicing, dancing, singing, and I met that teacher. He was healthy and alive, a survivor of Auschwitz, so we were happy to meet him."