Věra Flanderková

"It was all strange to me before August 21. Because just before that, we were in Germany, in the GDR, on holiday at our friends in Zittau. The friends, the gentleman, had a private stonemasonry. In the GDR, there were private craftsmen. Our friends told us, 'Just wait. They will occupy you.' And we said, 'Who would occupy us?' 'The forests here are full of Russian soldiers. You're not even allowed to go there, like to Oybin and other places near the border where people like to go.' It was forbidden to go there. No entry. Our friends told us all this 14 days before the Russian troops invaded. They told us that the Russian troops were dug into the forest and ready to invade us. We were terribly surprised. Then we came home and paid no attention to it. We lived normally. We didn't care much about politics. What we heard, we heard. We liked the way Dubček spoke, and we liked it better than the proclamations of other communists. But suddenly, it was August."

"I remember that at the end of the war when the Germans were being deported, my father helped three girls who were being deported. For several months, I don't know exactly how long he had those three girls. He brought them from Bílý Kostel from Liberec. They stayed with us for some time before they were deported. They were glad. The one, I'm thinking now, was sent to Dresden somewhere. And about in the fifties or sixties, maybe even later, her son came to us and brought a greeting from her. She remembered that she had lived with my father in Podsemín for a certain period of time. It was nice, pleasant. They commonly lived with us in the family. They mainly helped my mother with housework. It was nice that they remembered it. I guess they liked it. They were happy that my dad helped them."