Bohuslav Fabián

“I drove towards the Czechoslovak Radio building. I got out by the barracks. They admitted me there. There were plenty of people but unfortunately they didn’t have rifles for us. So they gave me a panzerfaust, explaining how to use it and warning me about always minding what’s behind me when shooting. But I didn’t get to shoot it. They loaded about twenty of us on a truck and drove us towards the radio. The commanders decided for us to go towards the Czech Radio. We didn’t get all the way there. We drove somewhere; it was almost night time, where there was a vast meadow. Shooting was going on in there. They wouldn’t let us join in because we lacked rifles. They said: ‘We have plenty of people but few rifles.’ So we went on foot and made it towards the radio building. The one in command was killed in action the other day. He fell victim to a mortar attack because there were people out in the streets and he wanted to chase them off to take cover and leave the open space. Poor guy, he died doing just that.”

“My parents were worried about me but I didn’t consider it a real risk that I’d die in Germany. This was not on my mind. But I would like to add something regarding the shelling. Once I had spent a shelling in a shelter at Alexanderplatz. They must have bombed the immediate surroundings because everything was shaking down there. There were plenty of children there and especially women. They started screaming terribly, it was unbearable. Some jackass realized that there weren’t only Germans there and started screaming: ‘Foreigners out!’ They wanted to kick us out from the shelter during the shelling. A few brats from Hitlerjugend were walking around there and one pulled out a dagger and started poking me in my chest. Meanwhile, the bombing was ceasing so he gave up on it but I told myself that I would never go to the shelter again. Ever since, I had spent all the bombings out in the streets. I would always go to a park or some open space. I saw them dropping the bombs. Once, I went to work at the Eastern Station when a shelling started. As usually, I stayed out, a few meters from the station. I snuggled against a house and waited for whatever was coming. First they dropped light bombs so it seemed like daylight. Airplanes were flying over. I saw them drop the bombs. Luckily, they didn’t fall in front of me but inside that building. So I escaped unscathed. But I saw it all. Something horrible.”