RNDr. Emil Tuma

“During the war, we had the prestige - in 1944, when the disposition squad was formed - that whenever there was an airborne alarm, which was almost every night, in a few minutes we were in the shelters on the Luftschutz. At that time, I went to bed dressed, so I wouldn't have to get dressed at all. So as soon as the alarm was on, I got on my bike and went to the Luftschutz shelter. And in that shelter: those shelters were reinforced with beams, and those beams were joined by anchors. We had uniforms as 'disposable gendarmes'. Black canvas overalls and wide fire belt. And at that belt was such a thick rope topped with a large carabiner. The carabiner was clipped to the side, to the strap. And the guys fooled around in the shelter once at the alarm and hung me by that carabiner on one of the beam. I was hung by a belt like a golden fleece. The guys were still spinning me, so I was hanging helplessly and just spinning. And at that moment the Chief Commander of Nymburk Luftschutz came to Major Pitha.“

“On May 2, after lunch, a clutch from Hamtil arrived on the bike and announced that we should all come to HQ Luftschutz - that was the old deanery at the church square - and that we would be accommodated there and that we would perform the Revolutionary National Committee. I owe my father, who was there with me, for saying neither nothing at all. He did not prevent me and let me go immediately. And I was cycling to the headquarters right then, and we've been staying there since then. That same day - I don't know where the rifle came from - we learned to shoot a rifle. Under that headquarters of Luftschutz, under that deanery, there were deep cellars. We also went there a few years ago. Someone at the city council was taking us through the cellars. There were covers, where we learned to shoot a rifle. Those were terrible beats. I also attribute this to the fact that it may have made me deaf as I am now.”

“The secretary of the factory was called Nosek. And I was there as a kind of the girl for every job, so the next day Nosek sent me to pick up the shoes he had repaired in the square near Bata. So I stood in line for the repaired shoes and suddenly someone came to the store and said, 'Pack it all! A revolution broke out! In the workshops it is storming!‘ So I waited for the shoes because I was in the queue near the dispenser. Then I flipped those shoes over the bridge to Zálabí, handed them over to the prosecutor and announced in the factory what was happening in the workshops that they were already storming and that there was a revolution against the Germans.”

"In the morning my grandmother came running and said, 'The Russians are here!' Our Jirka was in a camp near Lipová back then. It was near the border, in the western part of the Šluknov promontory. He was there at the scout camp. And he had a patrol at night and said it was interesting that helicopters were flying over them and shining down on the ground. So in the morning when I learned that there were Russians - I had only a two-seater Pioneer - I immediately drove via the forest road towards Lipová. There I went to Šenov on a normal road and there were still some delayed Russian tanks. So I passed them in the opposite direction. I got to Lipová's camp. The camp was packed, so I helped with it and I took our eleven-year-old Jirka to Kunratice.”

“When I came to the inspector in Nymburk, if he had any room for me, he was a great Bolshevik, so he refused me. So I remember that I went to the inspector in Poděbrady. And he was far more gentle and promised me a job that I could start somewhere in Pečky from 1st September. So I had a statement written by him and with that I went to the Ministry of Education in September. When I came to the Ministry on Karmelitská Street in Prague, the official said to me: 'It probably won't work.' We have few teachers of natural history for grammar schools.‘ So I went and started working in Rumburk. And I had no idea that Rumburk would be my lifetime workplace. I taught forty-three school years here in Rumburk.”