Pavel Vais

“In 1945, 1946, 1947, there was a certain sense of optimism prevailing in Prague. We hoped that the Russians would let us live. In 1946, some goods were beginning to be available and we could work. But the Russians restricted us very much and most of the country’s production was sent to the Soviet Union. This was slowing down the economy tremendously. Well, I can say that the first two or three years weren’t that bad. We had a fairly pleasant life with my wife. But by the beginning of 1948, the Communist tendencies were growing stronger and stronger. They closed down my wholesale business and I could only keep my store. By then, we were left with only a small amount of goods we could sell at restricted prices. So there was no way you could really profit under these circumstances. Finally, in August or September 1948, the Bratrství, which was a cooperative, offered me to take over my shop. The only other alternative was outright nationalization so I accepted their offer. So they got hold of my store and even promised me to employ me there but I had already made up my mind to go emigrate. That wasn’t easy at all but luckily – due to some connections I had – I was able to get a visa for myself, my wife, my son and my mother in law. We left in December 1948 to London.”

“I don’t have much combat experience since I was a driver attached to the headquarters. I rarely got to see combat operations. However, we had certain complications that I had talked about before. Our units were attacking the Germans mostly on the roads that were within reach of the German artillery. They always eliminated the first tank or two and the rest of the column was stuck and had to retreat. Our company suffered the biggest losses while disarming land mines. It often happened that the Germans set their land mines during the night very close to our base or even directly under our tanks. When the tank crews discovered the land mines they called the sappers to defuse them. We had a certain standard method for dismantling the landmines but the Germans would every now and then change the settings of the explosion trigger and a lot of my friends got killed while they were trying to render such a land mine harmless. On the other hand, we benefited from the huge stretches of irrigated land with human settlements that had been hastily abandoned by the former inhabitants. We often found in the houses food lying on the tables or maybe a hen or a pig. This greatly improved our diet and as we had excellent cooks, I really can’t complain about the food we had there. It was mostly very good. Maybe it was also due to the fact that we ate together with the officers – there was just one cuisine.”

Interviewer: “How did you actually get to Britain? Pavel Vais: “On a train. That was still at a time when there were no airlines flying between Britain and mainland Europe. There was a train going from Prague directly to Hoek van Holland. You usually had to go through Holland. And then from Hoek van Holland on a ship to, I think it was Harwich, a port on the south-east coast of England, and from there on a train to London.” Interviewer: “Did you know anybody in England by then?” Pavel Vais: “Yeah, I had three friends there. I stayed with them till the mid-1940s. We were four young emigrants. In the beginning, it was very hard to make it through. We were struggling since it was illegal for immigrants to work in England. So we had to live on very little. We had a job, but of course my first job wasn’t quite legal. But after one year, the law was changed and I was able to get a regular job there. In England, I became a tailor.”

Interviewer: “What was the general spirit in the unit like at that time?” Pavel Vais: “It was generally very good, very friendly. A high proportion of our unit was made up of Jews because a large part of the emigrants from Czechoslovakia were Jewish. Even officers and reserve officers in the corps often were Jewish. So there was not a hint of Anti-Semitism at any time in the unit. There were also a couple of men who originated in the former Sudetenland. They were Germans and often they spoke German as their Czech was rather poor. However, we didn’t have a problem with them. Anyway, they were mostly Communists who had fought as volunteers in Spain against Franco and then fled to France, where they were initially held in concentration camps but after September 1939, they were incorporated into the Czechoslovak army corps in France which was then transferred to Britain. Of course, there were many Slovaks as well in our company. Many of them had been living in France even before the war and after the outbreak of hostilities they had to join the corps in Agde. But there were no racial or religious complications whatsoever. At least I can’t think of any.”