Jarmila Čermáková

„At about ten o´clock the guerrillas have come to us to leave the lodge immediately as we were about to get blown off. Well, so we woke up at about ten o'clock, it was good that my parents had it covered. Well, in short, my dad dug a hole there so that we could hide in there. There were branches, and so on, but it was already spring and there was water flowing in. So there were about five centimetres of water, so it was quite difficult for my parents. But about ten o´clock what could they do, right? And at twelve o'clock the Russians shot ground missiles and dropped thirteen down on our house. And those were really big holes, maybe three quarters of the room, thirteen holes, but it was just as if the Lord was watching over us. In front of the house, one hole next to the other; and it was five meters from the lodge. So there were even no cracks at all.”

“These were just young boys, fifteen or sixteen years old, little soldiers. And they came to us twice a day, came to us, and looked around the apartment, if anyone was there. Of course, once in a blue moon there was a guerrilla guy with a message what was going on, and daddy's translated it to German, but they were pretty good. But we did not know what he would have done, when the main thing happened. Well, and they just came to us and my dad sayd: ´We got news, at five o´clock five guerrilla guys were here. But there were twelve of them on horsebacks informing that the front was coming, that the front has finally moving here and that they would come to us as such, twelve thirteen soldiers, just like the front, doing what was going on. Kind of explorers. My daddy told the Germans, but of course you were gone and there was a pond near the lodge with a small dam and Daddy said, that finally the Germans were not there after three weeks, and we turned around and the Russian were just arriving. So it was just that quick; within a quarter of an hour the Russians replaced the Germans. And that's when I saw my dad as white as the snow, that was how scared he got, because there could have been a shootout and we could all be dead for sure.”