Jaroslav Hrubeš

“There was a civilian standing by the office, and he addressed me: “Are you Jarda Hrubeš?’ I said ‘yes’. He said that when I went inside, I shouldn’t play hero, that I should agree to everything. I thank him and went inside. The German there told me to sit down, and he handed me a sheet of paper - it was a transport to Terezín. You can imagine I had probably turned chalk white. I passed the paper back to him, and he tore it in half and threw it in the bin. He spoke fluent Czech. He said he had studied in Prague for seven years - that’s why he spoke Czech so well. He said: ‘You won’t go to Terezín, you’ll go to a labour camp. I have to defend my decision. I can’t let you go completely.”

“Back when the Russians attacked Hungary, that was in 1956, then of course the Communist immediately organised extra work shifts. Do one shift extra for Hungary. I worked at the aeroplane factory in Letňany. The Communists called up a meeting, and so all the employees gathered in the big hall. The director said: ‘Comrades, the situation is thus... And we proposed that we could do one shift for Hungary. Hands up who agrees.’ So everyone raised their hand. ‘Is there anyone who doesn’t agree?’ The only one who didn’t agree was me. ‘Why don’t you agree?’ I said it seemed odd. That I hadn’t heard them ask the people who agreed, why they did. But apparently, it was a matter of course to agree. I said that in that case it was a matter of course for me to disagree. ‘You have to explain why.’ I said I didn’t, but I would explain it to them: I hadn’t caused any damage to Hungary, nor had anyone from our country, so I didn’t see why we should work eight hours for Hungary.”