Růžena Kamarádová

“I was sentenced to seven years in prison. It was tougher than a normal jail because we were placed in close confinement. Each month, they brought us out to the hallway and I had to sleep on the floor and then go to work. When I was sick, when I had a high fever, Dr. Halík from Olomouc came to see me. Usually we didn’t see doctors. The warden asked me if I wanted to see a doctor. I said: ‘I’ll give it a try, maybe he’ll give me some aspirin’. I didn’t get anything, it wasn’t permitted. Once, I was ill with a ribcage inflammation. Another time I had a high fever with temperatures over 40. I still had to go to work. So I went to see the doctor and he asked me what I was sent to jail for. I told him that it was for spreading some leaflets. He asked: ‘How many years?’ I said 'Seven'. He said: ‘That’s a nice couple of years’. I agreed. He said: ‘Can you pray?’ I said yes. He said: ‘Pray, maybe it’ll help you. Next one!’”

“After the Germans left there was still bombing and a huge bomb exploded near our house. Our attic was full of dirt. Our dog was in the kitchen at the moment and when a big bomb fell on the field nearby, our fence was blown away. The roof was blown off and the dog was thrown out through the window into the yard. The heavy door was blown away as well and the same for our cellar window. We all looked like chimney sweepers because the smut from the chimney was all over the place. It was terrible. The folks from Hejčín came very quickly time to see if we were alive. My grandpa luckily survived the blast but the pressure wave might have torn apart his lungs. Our place looked terrible. There was a huge crater in the ground next to our house. You could have placed a whole house in there. If that bomb had fallen directly on our house, I wouldn’t be here today.”

“They were executing people almost on a daily basis, Czechs and Germans alike. I witnessed a lot of executions in the three and half years I spent there. The murderess that was with us in our cell was waiting for her execution, too. She had a little girl and a lover who had told her to kill her husband by poisoning him with cyanide, which she had put in his wine. After she poisoned him, she cut his body into pieces, cooked it and fed to the pigs. She told me everything. She was executed for disgracing a dead body. She used to walk the cell at night; she spent the whole night this way. Me and Věra, we couldn’t sleep at all because she scared us. We were terrified she might murder us at night. She kept walking and walking like a sleepwalker. Like a murderess. I kept watching every move she made and where she was. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t sleep at night and had to go and work in the morning.”

“Then came the Russians. Me and my mom stayed for a week with our neighbors - the ones that had warned us. My dad fought with them. He knew how to fight because he was a veteran legionnaire; a first-class soldier. They took all of our books and covered themselves with them. They also vomited on them. They made a terrible mess. My dad told one of the soldiers: ‘Come out or you’ll see’. He didn't obey the commander and was shot on the spot. He said: ‘There’s nothing you can do about it. You’ll either carry out my orders, or you’ll suffer’. And he added: ‘This will happen to all of you’. They obeyed every word he said. I thought to myself that it was a great blessing that he was such a great commander. It was awful. We couldn’t come out for a week. The ditches were full of soldiers. It looked like this for a week. I don’t even want to remember it. It was terrible. They stayed there for a week, looting the houses and harassing and raping the women. It was really horrible.”