Josef Červenka

"It was completely useless that the troops invaded here, because nobody went against socialism at that time. People just wanted things to get better, because we were really in a concentration camp here, the whole border surrounded by wires, where could we go? Our money was not exchangeable, it was only valid here. It's true that we used to get vouchers from the works council for a hundred crowns and we would go to Hungary, or to the GDR, to Warsaw, to Częstochowa. When we were in Hungary, where they had good things, we wanted to buy something. We had the money exchanged, but we needed a little more, so we went to the exchange office and they asked us for the certificate, we only had a voucher for a hundred crowns and they couldn't exchange more. The West Germans, the English, came there, took out the money and they exchanged any amount, so unfortunately socialism wasn't worth much."

"On 28 April, when the artillery fire could already be heard and people were afraid, she (my mother) remembered that when they were leaving the church, the girls told her: 'Don't stay at home, come to the Hlaďák's cellar,' which was an inn and a dance hall. So, my mother eventually took a boiled egg and bread, and we went out of the gate and went up, and there were about twenty German soldiers standing there. They didn't do anything to us, we walked past and went into the cellar, it was already full of people. We were praying all the time, everybody was scared. On the 29th of April, we heard terrible shooting, it was already infantry guns, horror, people were wailing and we were praying more and more. It lasted until the afternoon, until about 5 p.m., then it stopped. The Germans had already gone to Maršov and were chasing them, so we went out. Everybody hugged the Russians and brought them plum brandy, home-made spirits, everybody had a shot, but they didn't want it, they took the whole bottle and passed the bottle around. Two shot German soldiers were lying near Děták’s, then our men buried them in a rock, there was a hollow there, they are still resting there."