Božetěch Kostelka

„Ruští vojáci se dostali na dvůr a my jsme tam byli v šatně. Vyběhli jsme a před našima očima kulometčíka, který tak dlouho odolával, na místě zastřelili. A když jsme jim donesli, těm vojákům, napít, tak napřed jsme se museli napít my a pak oni. A šli dál do města. Ale toho před očima na místě zastřelili, toho německého kulometčíka, který bránil vchod ze zahrady do dvora katolického domu. “

„Orelskou odbojovou činnost rozkličkovali až koncem roku 1944. A v rámci této akce už byl zatčen i otec. Ta práce v orelském odboji byla založená na takzvané trojici. Vždy se znali jenom tři lidé. Oni se znali určitě z orelské činnosti, ale ne z této [odbojové] činnosti. Koncem roku 1944 začalo velké zatýkání orelských činovníků tady na Moravě. Byli přesouváni na výslechy do Ostravy, z Ostravy do Breslau, to je dnešní Vratislav, a tam se začalo popravovat poměrně brzo. Ale hodně těch trojic vzájemně nepromluvilo, takže ty popravy nebyly tak hromadné. Otce zachránilo to, že z těch třech nikdo neprozradil jednoho nebo druhého. Pak se k Breslau přiblížila Rudá armáda, fronta. A ti němečtí věznitelé potom seznali, že část vězňů vzali s sebou a namířili přes Protektorát do Německa, aby se vzdali s těmi vězni jako rukojmí do amerického zajetí. A otec přežil ten přesun do Bayreuthu a Bayreuth osvobodili Američané za podmínek, že Němci vyvedou vězně mimo město a potom že začne útok na město, který trval jenom asi hodinu. A vzdali se americké armádě při osvobození toho Bayreuthu.“

„In 1990 the activities of Orel were renewed. There was a meeting with the representatives and of course they found my father´s name in the records. They found out that the father died meanwhile and my mother kept living in her brother´s flat so there still was a contact. The representatives said that I could come and help out. When I retired in 1991 I began helping with administrative works at the central and with renewing a kind of physical educational activities, obviously not with the kit, as those somersaults and grand circle swings were difficult to realise. More or less the gro of my job was in the field of ball games, preparation of basketball or volleyball. But later I helped the teams in unions regarding basketball training of youth.”

“My first scouting campsite was with the scouts from Brno in Hanušovice. The leaders of Brno group provided accommodation at the school premises. It was called Kopřivná near Hanušovice. Local people had to leave the place and the only Czech family left remained, which resettled there. Beyond Hanušovice was a camp, where the Red army deserters were concentrated and there was the Czech crew to guard it, but that was an impossible task, and so some of the refugees escaped anyway and kept wondering around. Once they assaulted the Czech family. They were looking for liquor and murdered the whole family instead. The guard was searching for them, but had no authority over them, so they got returned back. Although it was a scouting camp, we mainly wondered around the neighbourhood discovering the nature that was infested by weapons. Stuff from German families were there too; boxes and gun patrons, pistols and hand grenades. The older ones were watching over us to hand everything over, and they were then passing it over to the soldiers, who had a crew in Hanušovice.”

“There they divided us in sections, that went down the mines, and I was assigned to a section that then went to Ostrava. Then I was there for the last time before we were released back to civilian life. In the Ostrava area I got in the old mines in Silesian Ostrava, where the power of the coal seam was 70, not more than 80 centimeters, so we worked lying down all the time only using very short shovels because we threw the material behind our necks. That was an unpleasant job indeed. I had a special experience there. The two, who were with us during the shift, forgot the tools in the mining wall, so called ´fedruck´, as they used to say in Ostrava, and when we went back to the elevator they remembered and wanted to go back. We tried to talk them out of the idea saying it was worthless, but they still went there. We were up the mine, another shift went in and found them both suffocated to death. Our whole shift was shuffled to different other mines in Ostrava within two days, so that we could not bear any witness to the accident. But to this day I do not know how the families coped. We did not find it from the auxiliary troops union. Military authorities somehow camouflaged the whole event. They probably wrote they died fulfilling military duties.”