Eva Rybová

"Life in our family changed a lot after February 1948 because the communists closed our shop and my father's business because he was an exploiter for them. He had no employees in his life, he had four children, he was renting, he didn't have his own workshop or shop, everything was borrowed. He had to leave the shop, and it destroyed our mother psychologically. Mainly because my dad came from a downright communist working class family - he was one of seven children, his dad was a horse wagon driver and mom worked in the fields - that they treated him like that. All those boys worked their way up and learned. And when they finally managed to own their own shop and the children were grown up, well they weren't, they were five years old, the communists took it away. She couldn't put up with it, so life with us consisted of my mother constantly cursing the communists, we heard that all the time."

"The refugees were moving with the cars, going from Rváčov to the square and then on to Nová Ves and Nová Paka, etc. Allegedly, someone from one of the cars was supposed to shoot at people on the sidewalks. It was on Smetana Street, they were going to Rváčov to the city. We were there too. Suddenly someone shouted: 'Everybody take cover!' We hid behind piles of cinder that were lying by the road, and [Lieutenant] Kozlov drove up in his car and started shooting at the people who were riding in the cars. Supposedly because someone shot at the people on the sidewalk." "And you personally did not hear any shots from the car before that?" "No, it must have happened somewhere higher up. We were standing on the corner of what is now the Babylon pub, because we were walking to Kalcovka, and this must have happened higher up by the park in Smetana Street. Allegedly someone shot there, I don't know. But I saw Kozlov take an automatic and shoot the whole street, both towards the square and upwards. We saw that."