Jana Chalupová

“At the time when he learnt that there would be a court trial, he asked my grandpa whether he would not take him out of the Avia factory in a lorry. Grandpa got on his bike and he rode to the factory and he walked by the fence trying to see him there. He saw him and he yelled at him. Mr. Salač approached the fence and grandpa told him: ‘Pepík, the door of our house is always open for you. It is up to you how you get out of here. But do it smartly, please.´ As we know from the documents which I have read as well as from Mr. Salač’s narrative, he did not address people who knew grandpa, but he turned for help to certain Mr. Horní, who was going to the factory by car as well, and he asked him whether he would be willing to take him out, allegedly because he wanted to buy a furniture polish for some warden. A warden wanted to get some polish. Mr. Horní replied that he would, but that he would at first need to make a phone call and ask whether he would be ordered to go there. He went to the phone, the weather was rainy and cloudy, and Mr. Salač meanwhile grabbed a paper, soaked it in a puddle with sand, and he covered the windows and lay down under the dashboard in the lorry. Mr. Horní came to the lorry and said: ‘Let’s go!’ They passed through the gate, and since it was raining, the SS men just quickly peeked into the back of the car. They also looked inside Mr. Horní’s cabin, but they didn’t see anything and they said: ‘Go.’ Mr. Salač was thus taken out of the factory.”

“Grandpa then said that Mr. Salač could no longer be in the attic upstairs. When there were no people in the backyard, he and Salač dug a hole with a little window behind the cellar. It was so small that you could squeeze in only if you were lying down. It was a tiny room where Mr. Salač spent two years.”