Slavomil Braun

"Then it was worse, because the Germans were no longer here, were they?" But I must say that we were very sorry. My grandma and I were crying as they expelled them. Because they were people who didn't hurt anyone here. But it was probably about the politics. That was Henlein, you could say... I'd say an ugly word, I can't even say that. So, he fooled them. But Hitler didn't like the Sudetenmen very much, he didn't love them and he practically put them into the front line. They were all at Stalingrad. And it can be said that practically everyone died. Just three survived. Everyone we knew all died at Stalingrad. A neighbor when they were leaving… She had a daughter, I made great friends with her. The guys who were leaving, with whom I was skiing and playing, so we hugged and cried. It was a difficult time."

"I remember that exactly. That's what we were having a lesson here in the basement [of the school], in the bottom part. And when [the director] told us that Germany capitulated that the war was over, we didn't even go out through the door, we ran out through the windows, we jumped out the windows and we cheered and ran with joy, not even on the way, but on the meadow, there was a hole in the fence. We ran across the meadow to our homes, that the war was over. We were all very happy about it, everyone, including the Germans, everyone, all the boys. Only after that you saw what it brought. But that moment, I remember exactly, when the director there told us that Germany had capitulated that the war was over. He didn't say we lost, he probably didn't say it, but he said it was over. And we cheered, yelled and ran home, all of us. But it was a rumble, it's true, we shouted, we shouted with joy."

"However, because I organized this physical education… Such a jerk came to me, I remember, an important comrade, and he said, 'Well, comrade, but you should also do political activity, do it in the physical education!' I said to him: 'Comrade, when we build a hall for ten million and those people do it for free there, isn't that a political activity?!' He said, 'Well, it's a political activity, but you know, it's about the awareness.' I said: And they are not aware when they do it?! After all, Jesus Christ, otherwise we wouldn't have built it here! 'And he said: 'Set up a Voluntary Socialist Labor for example.' And I said: Ok we will set up the Voluntary Socialist Labor. I came up there, because back then I still… The ski lifts and the whole, even the economic department, belonged to Spartak, it was one [organization]. So I was, so to speak, the CEO for the whole of Spartak, and for the leadership up there. So, we founded the Voluntary Socialist Labor. No one knew that there was a Voluntary Socialist Labor, but I was reporting about it and it was settled. Look, that's how it was. But it helped! It helped! That activity helped! They didn´t bother me anymore, they did not bother Spartak anymore. Take it this way. Just an example: Harrachov, Špindl and Pec were facilities of the central physical education unit, state facilities. Only Spartak was private. And the director of this organization lived in Rokytnice, can you imagine that?!”