Helena Prokůpková

“Well, and then it started. They went at Dad as if he was a kulak. They wanted to form a cooperative, but no one was willing to sign, no one wanted to join. So the police came for our dad and the neighbour, they took them, drove off, and the then the others signed. The neighbour was called Mr Brejcha.”

“I wasn’t all that affected by the end of the war, I was fifteen. The main thing we wanted was peace, so the boys wouldn’t have to serve in the army, the young ones. Our boys hadn’t done service yet. They did later - my brother was with the AEC, the older one that is, not the younger one. My husband also served with the AEC, he was in the mines. My brother worked in construction. My husband was hit by a cave-in, the coal got in under his skin. He said that was the worst, when the wounds scabbed, and then they stripped them off - the pain was terrible.”