Václav Jeřábek

“We took refuge in the mountains and were searching for guerrilla groups that we could join. But the guerrilla groups that were operating in the mountains were in deep trouble as well due to the fact that the Germans and Slovaks had occupied all of the surrounding territory and they were having a hard time finding food for themselves. First of all, people need to eat and they couldn’t even get into a village to buy something because the Germans and the guard units were everywhere. So we were wandering the mountains and our supplies were running out. We realized that we didn’t know what to do. We ran into one guerrilla unit and they said: ‘we have nothing’. We were in the woods and while we still had some food left to eat it was good. We also had a horse with us and we said to ourselves that should the situation get critical, we’d kill the horse and eat it. But it was getting too cold and so we descended and sought out the guerrilla group that was the nearest. We approached them and they told us that they couldn’t take us with them since they were many and didn’t have any food themselves. However, they said that if we gave them our horse, they would be happy since at least they could slaughter it and have some food. But they couldn’t take us on board.”

“So I too stayed in the village with my machine gun. I thought: ‘what am I supposed to do now?’ Once the tanks were just 50 or 80 meters away from us, I had no other chance but to hide in one of the cottages. A lady came and said: ‘please, hide in the courtyard somewhere because the Germans are searching the houses’. So, to be honest, I hid in the yard, where next to a huge building there was a toilet, and I hid there. It was during one day and this lady brought me civilian clothes. She told me to throw away my uniform to prevent them from recognizing me as a soldier’.