Eva Herzánová

"When I was still in school, the kids would go to Ash Wednesday, and they would put crosses on their foreheads from the ashes. And I didn’t go with them because they would go to the canteen by themselves for breakfast and snacks. And they came back with ash crosses on their foreheads. One of the bakers came in and said, "Girls, what’s that on your heads?" And they giggled and said it was a cross, that they had gone to Ash Wednesday service. And the foreman started talking to me about it too, and I knew he was a Communist. I said, “Well, I’m not holding their hands, I don’t go with them, so it’s not my fault they went.” He said, “You should have persuaded them not to go.” And I replied, “But I didn’t even know they were going. How was I supposed to know?” Later, I was called in front of a Communist committee. “Comrade, do you know why we called you in?” “Well, I think it’s because Comrade Matějíček, the foreman, saw the girls come back from the Ash Wednesday service.” “Oh no, that’s not the reason at all.” So I asked, “Then why? I’m not aware I’ve done anything wrong.” “Well, you need to explain religion to them, it can’t be done like this. And you need to attend ideological training.” So I was punished by having to attend Communist education sessions, where I was told to teach the girls not to go to church. That was my punishment – having to listen to Communist indoctrination.

"We were a little worried. When the troops were passing each other, the Germans were leaving on one main road and the Russians were coming on the other and they were shooting at each other from a distance. We were hiding in the mill in Skryje then, nowadays that mill doesn't exist anymore, there's the Dukovany dam, the Dales dam. So we were hidden there, my father didn't come with us, he said he would come to us. And then, when he came to us, he went over the hill as the Germans and Russians were shooting at each other. So they had to crawl on the ground so they wouldn't get hit. And then they ran off into the woods, so it was good there. He didn't miss much, that was the only luck he had, that he didn't get hurt. So then we came back in the evening, dad came to us and said they were gone. So they just took turns being there. The Germans came in the morning and the Russians came in the afternoon. It was like a quick change of those troops, they didn't stay with us long."