"Well, I jumped into the tank along the top. He told me: ´Get inside from above! ´ Then I only heard him calling. He called some ENS to tell him that the tank commander is seriously injured. ´What shall we do with him? ´ I remember asking him as it was today. He was order to take me away somewhere. There was one tank standing by, but it could only go backwards. They told him: ´Get up and take him there.´ by using the reverse gear he took me to the hospital."
"They wanted the kolkhozes (collective farms). People who refused to join the collective farm got big taxes, special taxes. After paying all the necessities etc. they must have paid this tax as well. My father was supposed to pay thirteen thousand rubles. Therefore he must have sold almost all of the cattle to be able to pay the money. But when he paid the amount, the next year they increased it to twenty six thousand rubles. A lot of people couldn’t afford to pay this money anymore. Then the war came in 1941 and everything was over."
"They came at night to the mayor’s house and told him: ´You ought to give us one pig today! ´ So he went and gave them one pig right away. They just took it and that was it. But when the Kolpakov group came - those were the Russian partisans- they always came during the day and always provided a confirmation that they have received a pig from the town. Everyone who have had a confirmation, received the money back later from the Czechoslovak government or the Soviet government after the war."
"There was no Czech language at all. They taught us only in Ukrainian or Polish languages. Because when I was going to the grammar school, the place belonged to Poland, that’s why we were being educated only in Ukrainian or Polish. After that I attended school in Rovno town. After the Russians came in 1939, I started to visit Russian school in 1940. But then, when the Germans came and occupied Russia I attended Ukrainian Gymnasium with only German education."
"They were smoking there when all of a sudden - a bang. All I know was I’ve fallen down. I turned around and said: ´Guys, I’m hit.´ I looked around, but one of the boys was death already, he was hit in his head. All of the boys had head injuries. Only me, because I was standing there I was hit here and there. The bullet must have come from this side, because I was hit in here. It must have been from a tank. When the tank went down the hill, we could see it. But when it went up to the hill, they knew nobody can see them. It was the so called blind fire."
Mr. Vladimír Schovánek was born on February 7th 1923 in Podlísky village in Volhynia. After he finished the grammar school (he attended in Podlísky and Rovno) he got into the Ukrainian gymnasium with German education in 1941. This school was closed by Germans on December 1st, 1942. The following year Mr. Schovanek was included to the year of 1923 for the convict labor in Germany. Thanks to his parents interventions, he wasn’t deported. He stayed and worked on the farm. In 1944, he voluntarily entered the army. He joined the 1st Czechoslovak army troop. He became the tank T-70 commander and he was also assigned to the staff troop for specific task operations. Mr. Schovánek was seriously wounded during the Dukla pass battles. After that he underwent six months of complicated treatment. After his recovery he was relegated to the internment congregational Park in Kroměříž town. After that he was transferred as the guards commander to Olomouc town and then for a short time also to Žatec town. In February of 1946 he gained a farmstead in former German Libina town. (Today it’s Horní Libina village, part of Libina town in the Šumperk region.) In 1950 Mr. Schovánek became a member of the JZD (agricultural cooperatives). He was employed there until 1990. Vladimír Schovánek passed away on October, the 3rd, 2017.
