Naděžda Volná

“My dear children, my family, my dear father, brothers and friends. All four of us met at the end of April for our last post-Easter Thursday dinner. While nature clads her trees in flowering blooms so that new fruits can grow after the petals fall, in this decisive moment our tree is ripped from its roots by a violent storm in order to make place for others, better ones, and nobler. My lawyer, Dr. Pieper, was here yesterday at noon, and he informed me about all the steps you have taken. I thank you, my dear, for your unprecedented love, which you have always been giving to me and to my loved ones, and for your amazing work and the effort you exerted for the improvement of our lot. My dear children, Zdeněk, Vláďa and little Naďa, you were my everything. I have loved you dearly, even at times when I was chastising you. May your future be a happier one: a future, for which I have always been willing to sacrifice my life out of love. Love one another and do not forsake one another in difficult times. Support one another with all your strength and do not live your lives in vain. And do not forget your pure souls and God, who has counted even all the hairs on your heads. My dear old father, forgive me when I have wronged you, especially in your old age. We are all in God’s hands and we know that what He does is good. I look forward to reunion with my dear mother and eternal life of joy together. And Jožka, my only one, to your hands and to the hands of your helpers and friends I entrust my treasure: the children. Do not leave them and help to raise them. My brother Jirka, may God Himself, the God of love and goodness, reward you for everything, for the human reward is not sufficient. To all the families and their children I wish all the best that we were not able to enjoy. And to you, my Věročka, I forgive from my heart and I ask you for the same. Be a good mother to the orphans and lead them to fear God and to have hopeful future. May the heritage of Smetana, my homeland and the blessing of Komenský and his parting words guide you all in your further journey through life, just as it guides us at our lives’ end. Do not mourn for me, for to sacrifice oneself means to win, just as a kernel dies so that a seed may grow and give bountiful harvest. My last good-bye. Your airman Fanda.”

“Mom was the only one whom they allowed to visit him. It was in the Mírov prison and she recalled that there was a long table and that they could only touch their fingertips. They could not embrace each other. Mom said that dad was very emaciated and that he kept asking about us, the children. She could see that the prisoners were destitute. Mom returned home deeply shaken. She was heart-broken and desperate. That period was very hard for us at. I was malnourished. After the war, I was selected by the Red Cross together with some other children. I went to Sankt Gallen in Switzerland to stay with a Swiss family. I still keep in touch with their daughter even now and I have been there to visit her. It was a very pleasant surprise for me. They considered it an honour that they could help us after the war.”

“Before the liberation there was a massive air raid over Ostrava. We lived next to the department store Rix and the building was bombed. We lived in an apartment house right next to it. If the pilot who dropped the bombs had pressed the trigger one second sooner or later, our house would have been hit. We were in the basement. Then we heard the roar and the sound of dishes being smashed. It was terrible. Since the place where the bomb hit was right next to us, our house got shaken, too.”