Ilona Kociánová

"We were in my uncle's cellar. Our cellar was small, we couldn't all be there. At my uncle's, my mother's brother's, it was bigger. There were a lot of people hiding there, about fifteen. We were crammed in there. We spent about a week there. My grandfather stayed in the cottage, slept in the barn and watched the cow so that the soldiers wouldn't take it away from him, because that was the sustenance. If they had wanted to, they would have taken it from him, of course. But he saved the cow. The cow stayed."

"In 1945, I got sick. I had a big lump on my neck. My mother carried me on her back to a doctor in Velká Polom to see what could be done. He gave me medicine, but it didn't work. And then, when the Russian army came, they had an infirmary at the Dostals' inn. There were wounded soldiers there. My mother went there with me. There was a doctor there. She asked her to take a look at me. She put some ointment or lotion on it and said if it didn't clear up by morning she'd cut it. But it had loosened by morning, so mom didn't go in there with me anymore. There was already fighting in the village too. She treated me at home. She used up the whole curtain for that because we didn't have any bandages. There was nothing. But it turned out well. I got cured."