"There was a mountain and a forest behind us about three kilometers as the crow flies. And the Germans transported the Jews from the ghetto in Ludsko there and they shot them there. It was at the village Hnidava. The people from Hnidava said that when the executions were over they went to have a look at the place. Blood was still leaking through the filled up pits."
"After the war we went to celebrate to Prague. I got my first decoration from General Svoboda then. We got motorized. There we went – a carriage, horses and the observation troop. I was overtaking the infantry and artillery on the crossroads – and there he stood - General Svoboda! He stopped us and said: 'Where are you going?!' 'Well, forwards to Prague.' 'You can't fall in then?!' And he clobbered me with his stick twice. The guys were laughing at me then that I got a decoration.
"One of them came to the shop, pointed at fly-papers and said: 'Davaj menjá éto! Što éto?' ('Give me this. What is it?') The shop assistant said: 'Fly-papers.' But they wouldn't understand. 'Davaj sto štuk.' ('Give me a hundred pieces') He went out, unwrapped it, licked it, and once more. It was no good so he threw it all away. Some other time there came a Russian to the shop, he bought silver paint and he put it on his boots and saddle."
"I delivered the dispatch and the commander told me to follow them in the direction towards Kobyliny. Somehow I knew where it could be. So I went, went and it started getting dark. And then I heard a truck coming. It was a katyusha. It went very slowly with its lights lit. So I jumped on and lied down. All of a sudden a Russian soldier: 'Uchadi!' ('Go away!') I told him I was a Czechoslovak soldier but he didn't care and he was about to shoot. So I rather stood up and jumped off the vehicle. It was no fun. Well, I carried on walking. It was very dark and there was a forest short distance away. I said to myself there was no point in going anywhere so I lied down at a bush in the forest and wanted to continue after the daybreak. I heard some steps when the day started breaking. I thought they were our guys so I wanted to show up but suddenly I heard they spoke German. I saw two silhouettes approaching the bush where I was. I got my gun ready to shoot. But they passed my bush. When they passed me I jumped up and said: 'Hände hoch!' ('Hands up!') First they didn't want but I cocked the gun and they dropped theirs. They were two older bearded men. I walked them to our soldiers. Luckily it was only about a kilometer from there."
"There came a Russian to a Ukrainean who had only three hectares and he said to him: 'Što ty kulak?' ('How about you kulak?') 'I'm no kulak.' 'U těbjá serebrenaja kríša, ty kulak.' ('You have got a silver roof, you kulak.') He couldn't talk him out of the fact that it was just ordinary sheet."
"Before I underwent the operation, an ambulance man came to me and brought some spirit and a glass of water. He gave me about 2 deciliters of the spirit and said: 'Drink it up.' So I drank it hungry and I was soaked that instant."
"They ordered a delivery and those who failed to meet the order were given a huge fine or were imprisoned. So we did it the way that it was delivered there and poured out in a heap. The corn was rotting but nobody minded. The most important was that the delivery was fulfilled. For effect. The deliveries were so high that it was impossible to fulfill them. That's why it was done the way that the Russian guarding the store was bribed. He bought a bottle of brandy for ten quintal. And then he simply wrote that we delivered more than in reality."
"We were firing into the air and were celebrating the end of the war. There was a Russian soldier with a drum machine gun not far from me, about twenty meters. He said 'kaňéc vajny', he knocked the machine gun against the ground and got a burst into his face. He shot himself dead. He immediately rolled down and the Russians surrounded him."
Vladislav Albrecht was born in the village Český Boratín on Volyně on April 25, 1923. Volyně was part of Poland at that time. However, the region was annexed to the Soviet Union in 1939. The Germans came in 1941; Mr. Albrecht remembers both occupations. In March 1944 he joined the Czechoslovak troops in Rovny where he served as a brigade observer. He participated in armed operations in Slovakia, the end of the war found him in Bohemia. He served in the army after the war for a short period of time, thereafter he worked in an agricultural cooperative farm. He never joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. He has got five children with his wife and he lives in Horní Řepčice.
