Zdeněk Bouček

"We used to go to school on Mírové náměstí. And you know, we were running, there was an intersection and I ran across the intersection, there were probably five of us and I was the last one. Well, yeah, but there was a car that braked hard and a German soldier jumped out of it - SS - because they had to brake. Well, we weren't allowed to carry briefcases, only bags like for exercise books, there weren't many books, notebooks. My mother said she'd make and sew it for me. Well, she didn't, I had only one briefcase and it fell out and the soldier jumped up and kicked me right away and picked up the briefcase and emptied it. Because they said in those days even the pupils carried weapons, they carried them in briefcases, that's why it was forbidden, the headmaster was so honest about it, he wanted to observe it. But my mother was late and she didn't make me any drill bag and I just happened to have, coincidentally, I had the briefcase. So he emptied it, they picked me up, put me between them, there were two of them, and they took me. I didn't know where, I didn't know that either. And they took me to some building, then I found out that it was Petschek's Palace, you heard about it, Petschek's Palace. But there was so much shouting and everything, even at the two soldiers, why were they dragging me, what about me, well, they pushed me out again and I fell out there on the pavement."

"At the age of six I started going to school in Vinohrady, it was Polská Street, and always the teacher, when I was in the first class, said, "Boys!" - because it was a boys' school, originally everything, in those days it wasn't divided like a girls' school, we were a boys' school. And across the street was a villa in Osveta Park. And the teacher, I still remember her saying: "Boys, study well, this is where President Masaryk lived at one time!" And one boy, out of such joy, had a Masaryk cap made. I immediately told my mother that there was a hat maker in Vršovice who sewed it. So he sewed it for us five pupils, and we always sat in the first desk and had Masaryk caps on our desks. And when we left, when we said goodbye, we put them on. Of course, it was, the Protectorate had already started in March, but the Protectorate was not so sharp then. It wasn't yet, even when we started to learn to write with the Gothic script. We had a Gothic script too. Well, they forbade us to wear the hats in October. And so we, all the boys were crying that we were not allowed to wear those caps anymore!"