Karel Punčochář

"The school was just great. We even had a library there. Those who were coming from Czechoslovakia always brought books or magazines for the library. Without warning they destroyed our Stromovka Park. (We used to have a park named after Prague’s Stromovka Park). We used to have a theater - a wooden shack of course; a shooting range or the bowling alley, tennis courts and a music stage. We also had two orchestras and a choir. We were a real community. We even had a small soccer field where we used to play as young boys. We wanted our grammar school to be completely Czech, but that was impossible. We had to attend a Ukrainian school because we were in the Ukraine. Other than that there was also one Russian school; I wanted to attend the Russian one, but they wouldn’t let me."

" ´To the left! Straighten out the lines! ´ The SS officer in leather coat came. He had a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. He walked down the first line, always stopping in front of someone: ´Get out! Ten steps forward and turn around! ´Then he walked further and yelled again: ´Get out! Turn around! ´ He walked down the whole line and gave an order to step four or five steps forward. Then he walked down the second line. He stopped in front of one man and said: ´ Get out and join the men over there! ´And then again: ´Get out and join the men over there! ´And then he stopped in front of me. He was starring at me and I wondered what he might want from me. He looked at me and said: ´What is it? ´ I replied: ´Czech.´ He didn’t say a word and left. He pulled out eight men all together. He and another German soldier came to them and ordered them to take their pants off. They all were circumcised. This SS officer was some kind of a specialist from the concentration camp. Those poor naked men all got a shovel and they had to dig a latrine. Some of the stupid Ukrainians and Russians thought it was very funny and were laughing at them. They didn’t know what’s ahead of them."

"At that moment the heart attack struck me. I didn’t recognize it as a heart attack; I thought I was having a pulmonary problem. I couldn’t breathe so I opened the small cast-iron window and tried to get some fresh air into my lungs. To prevent an accident, I said in Russian: ´Stop pushing boys or I might cut myself.´ I had already cut my head... I threw away a piece of glass. I spent three days lying on the floor. Two men from our battalion came and asked me: ´What are you doing here? ´ I said: ´I don’t feel good, could you find some brick or stone? I need something to put under my head because I can’t lay down straight on the floor...´ So they brought me a brick which I put into my gas mask bag, which was empty because I got rid off the gas mask. I asked them to bring me some water too... The fourth day I was able to get up slowly and walk a little. There was a guy walking around with a bag over his shoulder; I thought it might be a doctor that I could talk too. He told me: ´If I can suggest something - don’t eat the crap you have here, you better get to the gate...get up early and go to work. There you may get something to eat; a piece of bread or small potato.´"

"It was called Nikolayev. I suppose it has a different name today. It used to be quite big town - sort of a military town where the officers lived with their families. Later on, only the guards and a few people remained there. One day we found a barrel full of meat in the kitchen. It was warm outside and the meat was already stinky but we were starving...what a shame, we thought. If it wasn’t stinky we could have had a great goulash. It must have means that they were running away from here fast, they even forgot the meat. I found a piece of leather sole so I took it with me. It helped me on my way. I exchanged it with a Ukrainian or Pole - I’m not sure who they were - for bread and piece of curd and piece of butter. I thanked them and that was it. In this way we retreated all the way to Stryi. Thank God they made some pasta and goulash for us the next day. But that was it; we didn’t get anything else, not even bread. Supplies and everything else was disorganized, it was very demoralizing. You can’t even imagine it."