"We did a 50-kilometer march and there were no asphalts in the countryside, but stone roads. We just got new English shoes and they were small for me. I couldn't change them, so I put them around my neck and walked those fifty kilometers barefoot. We came to our destination and I had both legs covered with blisters."
"As Czechs, we were protected, they were not allowed to take us to the military service. But in 1944, it was rumored that Hitler would mobilize all Czechs over the age of sixteen. I was almost seventeen by then, so what should have I done? Wait for Hitler, or go to the forest. A friend from us in the village was the commander of the partisan hospital. He sent me a letter saying where we would meet and that I would join him there. Dad drove me there. A military doctor came, examined me, and said I was qualified and if I would like to go to the brigade. I said that I would only join the Czech one."
"In the year 1942, partisan fights began to be organized, tracks and similar things began to be thrown out. There was also the first Czech in that organization, he was called Vojáček. The [Czechoslovak Brigade] thus began to be organized in the Czech region."
"Before, the Czechs were protected, the Germans protected us because we were under a protectorate. So, they all let us alone. But then it was rumored that by the end of the year 1944, the Germans would mobilize the young boys. And I was nearly seventeen."
"He gave me five bullets and he said, 'Look ...' - that was my training - '... that's how it goes, that's how it charges, and when we're in action, watch out. I need you alive, don't stick your head out, but don't hide either. 'That was [my training]. "
"The company commander was the same age as I was, he greeted me, gave me a rifle, five bullets and two cartridge boxes with bullets. He told me, 'That's the way it goes, this is how it charges and this is how it shoots. Don't poke your head anywhere or hide yourself, I need you alive not dead." That was all my training."
Vladimír Vaňous was born on September 10, 1927 in the village of Pavlovac on the territory of today‘s Croatia. His family belonged to the Czech community living in the vicinity of Daruvar, his parents worked in agriculture. After graduating from primary and middle school, he entered an industrial school in Zagreb, but did not complete his studies, as in 1944 he enrolled in the 1st Czechoslovak Brigade of Jan Žižka of Trocnov at the age of 17. He first served as an assistant at the machine gun and later as a typist at the staff of the Second Battalion. With the brigade, he participated in convoy raids, transports and sabotage operations. After the end of partisan fighting and the liberation of Yugoslavia, he re-emigrated to Czechoslovakia, where he began studying at an industrial school in Prague. He got married in Czechoslovakia, settled and gradually worked first on the State Farm in the Liberec region, then at the Gall factory for the production of aluminum pots in Mšeno near Jablonec nad Nisou, in Elektro-Praga and then in Liaz. He lived in Liberec at the time of filming (2021). The story of the witness could be recorded thanks to the support of the Statutory City of Liberec.
