PhDr. Ladislav Homola

“As the front approached, many were already fleeing [from forced labor in Kurim]. I decided to run away as well. It was 14 April, 1945. Together with others I went to the railway station in Brno. We had uniforms, so we looked like soldiers. There were so many soldiers at the station that no one could get into the carriage. It was guarded by the German police. We had long green military coats, so nobody ignored us and we walked along with the soldiers. In Náměšť we had to get off to get to Velké Meziříčí. Of course, we had no documents on the run, the inspectors asked for money from us, but eventually they waved their hands. Before the war ended, I had to hide at home, because deserting was punished by death sentence.”

“When we were released in Jáchymov, they told us that we should return to the place where the police had picked us up, that what we was behind could not be reminded of us, and that we should behave well. Well, I believed it was over. So, I went to the faculty in Brno to ask to finish my second state exam. But they told me it wasn't possible that if I had interrupted my studies for three years, it was no longer the case that the only possibility was to study again and distantly. The clerk who was in charge of the distance students then asked me if I went to church. I said yes. And he told me that I couldn't be a teacher. I asked him when religious freedom doesn't apply? And he replied that it would be better if I found a job where it wasn't such an issue.”