Antonín Kábele

"But I was given the biggest applause at the 200 meters trail. Despite having a very poor sight… I broke into a run. I had not even tried to jump over it. But I said: 'I cannot step over it, I just don't know how to.' However, some of them started stepping over it. I managed to run up as if I was running the 60 meters trail. And at that moment, the old of Honza shouted: 'Huuu - hop,' as I had landed. So I was happy to jump over my first barrier. You can hardly stop once you are there. And again that: 'Huu - hop!' There was a moment when I stumbled for a second, but still kept running forward. And as approaching the last barrier, I told myself: 'I am going to fall. Then I even extended my steps, instead of making it shorter. Thus, I had hit the barrier from below and fell. I started to look around, to check whether I was bleeding or not, as I take Warfarin regularly. And then, I wanted to pick up the barrier. But I told myself: 'If I pick it up, I will not be able to proceed to the next one.' Everyone was telling me then: 'We were just starring at you, as we thought you wanted to pick it up, to walk around and possibly make another attempt to jump over it.' I said that it was what I wanted to do actually, as I lacked experience. Then I told myself: 'I will break into a run again.' And so I did it and finished the race. And I won. The others were disqualified as they had been stepping over it. I was the one who won."

"There was one dad, who was with the Germans - and used to be like one of them - part of the Axis powers. However, his older son was taking liberties with me, beating me up as I was always talking about Czechs. Once I had a stick, I swung around and hit him in the head. He went home and told his father, of course. And so his father came to our house, claiming he would rat my dad, that my dad would go to the concentration camp. We were a bit scared of that; he never did it, though. I am not aware of what was the reason behind, but he never did it. Mr. Schwarz used to live one floor below. He was with the Allies. And Vodičkovi, they used to live right next to. Usually, when we wanted to listen to a foreign radio station, we used to take the radio there; it was like a small cabinet. I don't know how it was possible that, even though they wiped out the signal to prevent us from listening to the foreign radio stations, we were still able to catch it. It was still possible. And there on that button - I can see it as if it were today - there was written on the paper that listening to the foreign radio stations is punishable by death. As such, a certain amount of fear was present there. Nevertheless, we would be coming to their apartment anyway. They would tune in to London, and us to Moscow. And that Mr. Schwarz, he was calling my dead to join the Alliance. Well, he did not do that, you know. He just did not."