Otakar Hašek

“Boys said: 'Why are you scared, we will go to Czechoslovakia, what can happen to us? It will be better than in Vietnam. You can at least have a bath in prison every week and you get something to eat, why are you scared.' We were consoling one another. They brought us to Čierná pri Čope and they didn't let us out of the wagon. The next day came some civilians and they said: 'We are officials of “I have no idea of which” Ministry. Nothing will happen to you.' But they were all StB (State Security) members. They shut us in a compartment, they bought us food and beer, they accompanied us to Prague. They detached our wagon and shifted it at a side line and there was a green military bus. We were given a towel each. Němček said: 'Let's have a bath boys.' Shucks, we had to cover our eyes and they led us to Anton. They took us to Ruzyně. Then we were transported to Pankrác prison.”

“When the legion was supposed to arrive for an action, they had to arrive at the crack of dawn. We had to set off at three at night and we went where we knew their fortification was. The worst was when monkeys were there. The sods started making racket and the Vietnamese knew we were coming.”

“Did a head-to-head fight ever happen? They couldn't reach us because there was a steep slope. At some other places the slope was not so steep. Once masses of Vietnamese assaulted the third troop that was protecting the area. I personally haven't experienced it but the boys said they got as far as trenches and they had to beat the Vietnamese with their gunstocks. Otherwise they shoot from quite a distance. You were terrified and you were shooting not knowing where. You were not shooting at someone but simply in order to calm down. Well, it was a weird war. The worst about it all was you couldn't trust anyone. You saw an old woman in the village. She was carrying a heavy bag. You either checked her or let her go. It could happen that the bag was full of grenades. It was risky. Or boys were on guard. Whenever anything moved at night they started shooting there. When they investigated it in the morning they discovered they had killed a woman with a child. They didn't know, it was dark and they protected themselves. It was no fun. You were young, daft and you carried your colts low.”

“We had a political commissioner who 'brought us up' in a political way. He was making us sure they were dealing with the Czechoslovak offices and that we would be alright. They transported us to a repatriate camp not far from the Chinese border. One day there came some cars with the Chinese and they took us to Guanxi province. The Chinese treated us in an excellent way. We were lousy but they immediately gave us new clothes, the Chinese uniforms. The food was fantastic there. We weren't allowed to go out on our own as it was the time of Korean War. The Chinese could have thought we were Korean captives and they could have attacked us. We went out accompanied only, they took us to the cinema every week. (...) We were there for some time. Then the Treaty was signed, they put us on train and transported us to Czechoslovakia. There were about 150 Germans and 21 Czechoslovaks. They divided us in Brest, the Germans went to East Germany and we went to Čierná nad Tisou.”