Ján Križan

“Well, we already knew we were defrauded. They prepared us: ‘Oh, you will be great. There you get also salary and everything.’ They promised us anything, but two weeks later, they were transporting us by cars to Mimoň and from there by freight cars to Ostrava – Orlová. In Orlová we were also only for two weeks and then they divided us into pits. I got to a mine pit, where was a huge explosion half a year before. And it was me, who got into that spot, where the explosion happened. Oh, my God! When I saw it, those tunnels, traverses, it all was messed up. It seemed like it was just about to fall down and I was so close to giving up the ghost like never before. But then we got to the place it all ended, where the next passage was being mined and there was three meters high layer of coal to be mined. Such thick wooden columns, three meters tall, were placed on each squared meter, however, when the pressure arose, it all was cracking. There I worked for about a week, but really, that was the worst experience for me there.”

“Once we got very angry and that’s when we almost rose up. We lived in a wooden barrack, where were many bedbugs. So, what had they done? If they only had done that after we moved away, but yet during the time we were on duty, they packed our stuff into blankets and set the barrack on fire. They placed us into a barrack built of bricks that was left after soldiers who already departed, and it was quite fine there. There we stayed until the release. However, when we came there, we didn’t know what was ours as it all was mixed up. It was the worst, what could have happened, because even things a man owned he lost, since he was unable to recognize them. You know, there were also such men, who seized things which were someone else’s. That was really tough, back then.”