Vilém Wodák

"As a small boy I lived in Jihlava opposite to the church of the Mother of God. I remember the old Jihlava, the little streets and romantic corners, which disappeared due to 1960s assanations. The buildings of Jihlava were gradually destroyed. In 1974 a liquidation of a legendary Krecl began. Instead of that there is the thing in the square today. I remember finding treasures, when we as children were searching the attics of original inhabitants, that is photos, books, magazines, postcards, etc. Also scrap material centres, where we used to bring library books from schools. There were piled wonderful books, such as Ottův dictionary, German paperback gems from libraries and more. Treasure that cost a lot of money in auctions today. We were of course attracted to books and magazines from occupation times. And I grew up being formed by the interest."

"In Jihlava cases of mixed marriages were solved after war. The girls, who married Germans. There were many. They were asked to come to the town hall. (You mean the Rovolutionary national committee? – Author´s note: The name used until 15 May, 1945, since then a local national committee was used). So it was called. That happened right after war, in May or June 1945. I know that when the war was over, my mother had a German status. As she had a German husband; no protectorate nationality. These people were given so called Czechoslovak nationality after war. They were forcing women to renounce their husbands. All they had to do was to sign a written statement saying the marriage was forced. I don´t know any details. If my mother had signed such document, she´d be given her Czechoslovak nationality back. She´d not have lost her property, would not have to go to lager and there´d be no other consequences. (...) There were certain women, who did it, who signed. She didn´t do it as she cared for him and did not know if he comes back maybe from capture. She had to leave her flat and was interned to a collection centre."