Eva Vítová

"I was just in Zbrojnická Street when they began to fire from the tower and the town hall. Panic broke out. There were several American tanks in Zbrojnická Street and I climbed on one of them and they rolled with me. They stopped in the Marie Škardová Street (today Pražská Street – note of the Ed.) – back then there was a rope-maker's shop and the Špaček restaurant there, in front of the bridge. There were about five tanks there. And there somebody told them - I felt very sorry at that moment because my English at that time was still very much imperfect – that Prague was calling for help. The commander immediately sent these five tanks to Prague to help. I' am an eye witness of that. Later they would say that the Americans didn't bother to help them..."

"For us, it was in a way exciting. We were packed in that cellar, and only had suitcases with the essentials there. It happened fairly often, especially towards the end of the war. Once we thought our house got hit but it was half a block further, in Kotrovská street. So, we were happy it wasn't us."

“People from the Škoda works came to Husovo Square. I guess they came from the direction of gate Nr. 5. They told us to come with them. They called us the ‘fine people’ from the research institute or the experimental institute. I went with them but by then, the comrades from the Communist party and the revolutionary trade unions (ROH) had already blocked the door. They told us they wouldn’t let us go. So I ran back to the window and said: ‘they won’t let us go. They locked the door and they’re standing there’. The protesters knocked out the door and we were free to go. People were chanting. We arrived at the square and you could see that the demonstration didn’t have any clear leadership. It was more of a spontaneous uprising. People simply revolted in an unorganized manner. They would climb through a side window inside the town hall and throw out busts of Lenin and other communist potentates. I didn’t climb inside as the main entrance was locked and I didn’t want to climb up the window since I was wearing a short skirt on that day. I was wondering if someone from Prague or the West would appear and declare a free republic at last. But nothing like that happened. Nobody came except for more and more Škoda-factory workers who spontaneously protested against the monetary reform. More workers arrived from Doudlevce and I also noticed the secret state police agents.”

"Someone told the Americans that there were Germans hiding in the building of the Gestapo. They went there with some more tanks. I saw that they went there from the river and lead the Germans out. Those that were lead out of the building had to have their arms behind their heads and they stood in three lines facing the river. I don't know how many they were. The Americans guarded them. One of the onlookers alerted the Americans to one of the prisoners who kept twitching his hand. A soldier grabbed inside the pocket of that German and found a grenade in it."

“All of us ran in. And we were not alone because there were flocks, crowds of people hurrying towards the square. If someone had filmed it, it would’ve been worth it. It was as if ants were resettling. The whole of Pilsen. We ran across Mikulášské square, and in order to welcome the US soldiers we plucked lilacs and elder which were already in blossom. At least we had something to wave with. So we reached the square. But we couldn’t fit there anymore, and so I stood at the place where there’s a bank today. There was enough space there. They drove in from the direction of Adria, this is where they turned, and I welcomed them there. I lost my mummy and my sister – they probably made it all the way to the square. And there was another moment. When we began throwing elder flowers on them, they were still combat ready in their jeeps. I saw one of them who got hit by the flower and got startled. They didn’t expect such a welcome. It took an hour, hour and a half. Then someone began shooting towards the square from the tower. A great chaos broke out. I tried to make my way there because I knew my mummy and sister were somewhere there.”

"Suddenly, somebody said: 'let's take down the broadcast'! That was an initiative at last – we went to the broadcast. As we walked past the Masaryk Square, we passed that repulsive board that said: 'hand in hand with the Soviet Union forever'. I said: 'I won't tolerate this', and I tore it down. I didn't have a lighter, or matches with me. While we were removing that stupid slogan, I realized that it was already close to noon. I had to be back at work. I thought to myself what would become of that broadcast? Nothing. Again. So I went back to work but they wouldn't let me in. They told me I had to report at the directorate (Works of V. I. Lenin). So I reported that I had been to a demonstration. I didn't do any harm to anybody. This was it for me. But not for them."

"They told the Americans that there allegedly was an underground passage leading from the Gestapo headquarters to the Gambrinus brewery. That was the first and last time I heard this. This was also the place from where they (the Germans) opened their fire. The Americans went there and told us – the civilians – to take cover because they didn't want anything to happen to us."

“They kept me there up until midnight. So I thought: ‘Well, okay.’ Now, two policemen grabbed me from each side and they drove me. When I was still married I lived at Čechovka while my parents lived in Petrohrad. As we went from Tylovka to Klatovská I thought: ‘I see, they have my old address and so they’re taking me to my former apartment.’ But suddenly we were at the Bory prison. That was a surprise. My knees started trembling. But there was nothing I could do. I didn’t want them to notice I was scared.”

“I went on a train to Nuremberg where the refugee camp was located. In the camp, I spent about two weeks, maybe something little less than a month, whereupon I received a political visa, a passport and they also found me a job in Ettal. I wanted to work in a hotel since it was already shortly before Christmas and I wanted to have accommodation, catering and work all in one place. That was the best solution for me. I got to Ettal and I stayed there for over ten years.”

“Then he brought me a bread and I asked him: ‘now you’re trying it the kind way’? He said that he wasn’t trying anything on me, that I was a finished case. He said that the only thing that was going to be a problem there was an assessment that had probably been produced by the Communist party, in my file. He pulled out that file and went to the page with that assessment and then he pointed at that page and said: ‘if it wasn’t for this, you would have it quite well here’. The assessment said that I came from a family that had been involved in the Scout and had always been against communism. He showed me the page in the file and left, leaving the file on the table. I kept staring at the page – it was a thin, almost transparent paper. I thought to myself that he might be just provoking me – he could be watching me through a spy hole in the door. But finally, I mobilized my courage, tore out that piece of paper and swallowed it. Shortly afterwards, he came back, didn’t say a word and closed that file.”

"After the liberation, we were enjoying the best of times. Every girl had an American boyfriend and thus I also wanted to have one. It wasn't hard. I had a date – that's how they call it today, to 'date' somebody. He brought me a chocolate and he asked how old I was. I said: 'fifteen'. He gave me another chocolate and sent me back home and I didn't know why."

“I was sentenced to one year and I served it. When I was done with it, people from the Škoda factory came to see me and asked me to become their informant, saying that people would trust me now that I returned from prison and that they would find me a nice job. I got sick of it. I was still imprisoned back then – in Rakovník – and I was only supposed to be released on the second or third following day from Prague. So I told them I had to think it over. That I wasn’t ready to consider it, and so on. I thought that if I told them no, they may not have released me. The circumstances allowed for it. The other day I got released from Pankrác, my parents came to pick me up and brought me home. The day after that I had a date with that secret policeman and I told him: ‘No, I don’t have the nerves for it.’”