Gerhold Kostelník

"Then, when the Russians came a few days later... Gee. What they could rob, they robbed. They chased us, and we were scared. They thought we were Germans, but then they calmed down a bit, because we told them we were once Czechs. So they calmed down a bit. The first bunch was good. But the second bunch that came... Oh, my God. They were a bunch. I remember a Russian guy used to go there. He scared us. He was shouting at my mother, "Chazajka! Give me the eggs! Fuck your mother! He was yelling and walking around with a gun, saying he was going to shoot us. So we always ran next door to Grandma's basement. Two days later he came again and my mother told me to come with her, that we would go and feed the animals. Even though I was a kid and scared, I was with her when the bastard came again."

"He didn’t join the collective farm, and they had no reason to punish him. He had met all his delivery quotas. Everything. Completely everything. So they couldn't punish him with anything and he fought back. That he wasn't going and he wasn't going. He always told them, "If you guys had put as much money into the farm as I did, you wouldn't have signed it either. What I've done and worked to pay it back. And now I'm supposed to give it to you for free? No, I'm not. Don't ask me to sign. Take it, but without my signature.' That's what he told them. And they said it´s not their fault. So he said, "Leave me alone then. And he just didn't join the co-op. No way."