Jaromír Janza

"Some German soldier died in Russia. They came to us to play some funeral marches for him. They wanted us to play the German national anthem. But we didn´t know it so we played ´Hummed Mountains´ and ´Beautiful Bohemia, My Bohemia´ instead. They paid us five Marks and that was it. That was during the German period. Sometime we have provoked the Germans by playing in the evening. The hunting was just on; four gendarmes came and we had to give them our instruments. The Germans were all right more or less. But Hitler was a real bitch. He was a murderer like Stalin was. Those were the two biggest murderers."

"My name is Jaromír Janza and I was born on April 11th 1924. That was when Mr. President Masaryk ruled our Republic. He died on March 14th 1937 (he died in September - editor´s note). I was thirteen then. I went to his funeral which was held in St. Wenceslas Chapel. I could almost touch his remains. I always considered it a great honor. There was a Mrs. Captain, a widow from some captain...She used to come to our summer house. My father was a Russian legionnaire from Zborovo. He had a tattoo on his left forehand; it was a blue wreath where was written: Zborov, Omsk and Siberia."