Ing. Jan Kopeček

“But it was already dark and I came home and there was dark all over the place. And I was scared of the dark, I was an 11-year-old child. I was used to blackouts all the time during the was and now the windows were not covered and there were those views, I could see the darkened garden from the kitchen… And I expected that… I had those silly ideas. That a monster would appear, suddenly, in that window, from the darkness, and it would stare at me. A strange face. And I forbade myself, with this fear, to look to the right at that kitchen window. I was missing my mom, naturally, I was, when I wondered about how the imprisoned German women, how they started to cry when the humanitarian arrived, I was naïve. I was crying a lot at home as well. I did not know where my dad was, I had no clue what would happen to mom. And I spent several days like this. And one day, I couldn’t resist, it was the 18th May, and when I walked across the kitchen in the evening, it was dark outside, I looked at the window. And imagine, there was a face that stared me, in that window. I froze in fear! But that was our next door neighbour, Mr. Jahoda. He waved at me, ‘Come over!’ and I went to their house and the kitchen there was full of people. I knew some of them, some were strangers, and there sat my dad on the sofa, emaciated and wearing mismatched parts of a German uniform.”

“We met in one room or in one house, some did not speak Czech, some did not speak German but we understood each other perfectly well. And one day, mom started telling what she got to know from dad. And everyone just stared with their mouths open and then they started mumbling: ‘Oh God, that’s not possible, the Germans, such a cultured nation, they cannot be doing things like this!’ The sentence, ‘The Germans can’t, such a cultured nation’, it got stuck in my memory and even today when I hear it, it raises my hair from anger. Back then, when I was a boy, I didn‘t… I didn’t have any anti-German feelings, these things just… I was a child, it was just around me, I was growing among such people. Even though all my friends were Czech, I did not care. But this sentence was really disquieting. Our mother then said that she’s done with this cultural nation and that she’s surrendering her Germanhood. She said that in the family, nobody asked her about that and she did not put it down in writing anywhere but I think this was her own attitude. She was ashamed for the things that were happening. To this extent. This collaboration with those wifes of those Czech political prisoners, there was no trace of any nationalist feelings.”

“And I felt that the things were getting hot, somehow. Then, one day, I noticed, because my father had a brand new motorbike, ČZ 250 Sport, so, the boys form his class were pushing the motorbike somewhere away. And it was pretty clear that dad was afraid that they would put him to jail as well so he is stacking valuables into hiding. So, it was not only me who guessed that, I was actually pretty sure. Because if dad is someone important in Jemnice, they have to jail him for at least two years. I had this somewhat naïve feeling. So when one day someone, I don’t remember who they were, came running with the news that the Gestapo arrested our dad and ten other people right in the school and at their workplaces, they’re in custody at the local police station in Jemnice and when they will have them rounded up, they iwill take them to Brno, to the Špilberk prison. Mom, crying, took mz hand and we ran to the town so that we could see our dad one more time but we did not manage to get there on time. When we came to the police station, the pale-faced commander of the Czech police opened the door and told us gravely that they are gone already. That they took them away. So mom, still crying and more so this time grabbed my hand and we went to a dad’s colleague who was known for being always informed. She wanted a bit of consolation. And what could happen and what does he think and he did provide some consolation telling her: ‘Well, when he was such a moron to join then, now it serves him right.’”

“Out of sudden, a German soldier came to the yard. An older man, a sort of farmer, around fifty maybe, without a weapon, without a belt. He did wear an uniform but otherwise he had thrown everything away, he had nothing. And that he is terribly hungry and asked Mrs. Kreuzwieser for some food. Mrs. Kreuzwieser was not done mourning her husband yet, he had died a few months before in a German prison, so she had the right to hate him. And tell them to go to hell. But she got a large slice of butter, spread it with lard, she gave him a cup of milk and she helped him. And the German was terribly… he was a deserter… he was terribly grateful, he thanked her and he left with more thanks. Right away, a bunch of youngsters from Jemnice came to the same yard, all of them were armed. One of them, he seemed to be their leader, he dismantled his gun, a Parabellum, those were German guns which were greatly prized even by the Ally soldiers, and then he cleaned her the way the guns should be cleaned, if possible, right after use. And he started bragging: ‘Just here, behind your gardens, we got one again. He actually begged us to let him go, that he’s not armed, that he is surrendering, but he got one, just in the middle of his forehead.’”