Ing. Josef Diviš

"After the Germans, an absolute paradise remained for the boys. When the airport was demined, which was done by experts who remained there for a long time as supervisors, the population flocked there, because things that could be dismantled were always of interest to everyone. So, we used it only in one case, when we sat in a Messerschmitt fighter. It was a two-seater fighter that had an open cockpit. So, we got into it, we locked ourselves in there and then we were flying. When we got enough, we wanted to get out, but we couldn't open the cockpit because we didn't know how. So, we waited for someone to rescue us. We were freed by the soldiers who were guarding it there, in such a way that they got us out, pulled us by the ears and promised us that we would have problem at home, that they would tell our parents. That was such an experience, but otherwise on the field in that car park, where a whole lot of things were left that could be used in part, there I liked the medium-caliber anti-aircraft gun there, which had about a three-meter gun barrel and a seat as used to be on tractors before. There was such a wheel by that seat. With that wheel the gun barrel turned and lifted up, lowered down. I really enjoyed playing with that gun barrel. There was also an accident there once due to my fault. The boys, who were playing with other things, one of them approached me and I just drove the gun barrel in such a way that I knocked him to the ground. Whereupon he didn't forget it until later in life, when he became a Public Safety assistant. A Public Safety auxiliary guards stopped cars, so he stopped me when I was riding a motorcycle and gave me such a punishment for it, as if I had done, I don't know what. What I was not aware of. So, I thought he was getting revenge on me for knocking him to the ground with that gun barrel."

"When [father] then got to Rovnost, to the uranium in Jáchymov, there was one citizen who was from Skuteč and was imprisoned in the same camp. When he found out that dad was there, he found him and went to him and perfectly gave him all the information he needed to have so that he wouldn't be eliminated because he had been there for several years. He used his knowledge of relationships to warn him about what he could and couldn't do. Dad said it saved his life. Then there was one of my secondary grammar school classmates from Hlinsko who was there as a civilian employee. When he saw my dad there, without talking to him, one fine day he brought him a snack. He put it in his pocket and said: 'I'm Zdeněk, I went to school with Bobš at secondary grammar school.' So, he knew his dad. This classmate is no longer alive. I didn't have the opportunity in my life to thank him for that, because it was a very significant support that people didn't do without risk and didn't just do it for everyone. They did it when they saw it is neeeded."

“When my father was in prison, my grandmother had some kind of sepsis, something like appendicitis or something, which was neglected. She was in surgery. The surgery didn't go too well because there was an infection that had to be left in the hands of the gods to survive. When we visited her, she looked very bad and told me: 'I can't die because I have to wait for Pepík to come back from prison.' That was three years before Pepík came back. She survived and died seven years after dad was home, at the age of 90. So, this is a demonstration of the strength of the person who, when he really wants something, achieves it. It's very enlightening and I've actually been learning from it my whole life.''