František Humler

“The media covered this issue in a way they found convenient – in a way the Party found it convenient, right? So they were spreading their case. There was this trial in Babice, and after that, there were workers on trial in Jihlava. And the judges were the same in both cases. And they forced us to go there, they urged us to go there so we would see. So I went there and I was watching it for some time from the balcony. And I saw them being hammered. They didn't even let them answer the questions. As they had so many evidence and this... Well it was quite an ugly thing to see.”

“On the last night before the Russians came there were columns of tanks, armoured cars and horse carts moving from Brtnice to Jihlava, since the Germans were retreating and they drove the cattle from Brtnice with them. The Russians also took cattle. They drove the cattle to Příseka and they told people from Brtnice who were helping them to go home and they were looking for some boys or for just anyone who would go to Jihlava with them. I didn't go but my cousin did. There was this whole group of boys. And back then this quite unpleasant thing happened. They got to Pančava – you know where Pančava is, on the outskirts of Jihlava facing Brtnice. They herded the cattle to the grasslands by a stream or maybe a river and they went to Jihlava to look for people who would be willing to replace them from Jihlava on. And those boys, our Czech boys from Příseka, well, one of them found a Panzerfaust. Well Panzerfaust, there was no warhead, so he was checking it up. He was examining the sighting device. And he said to the other boy: 'Look, I will shoot you.' And he pushed the trigger. And there was no warhead but this explosive charge. And it would detonate and blew his leg of. Not the entire leg I mean, it was still hanging on this piece of meat. Fortunately, Svoboda's men were passing by – part of the Soviet army, our people – so they took him and rushed him to hospital.”