Ing. Jan Kruml

“We moved back to our flat. But of course, it was already looted. The Red Army soldiers did it. As they needed clothes, for example, so they would have something to wear after they would leave the army. Or a violin. That was something my father couldn't understand, why they had to steal his violin. But later we found that there was this colonel in the house we had been staying in. And as it occured on 9 May and all of a sudden the war finally ended, he did this gesture of goodwill, he gave this boy, me in fact, his saber. As soon as I heard the news I ran across the whole town of Zastávka to pick up the saber and I was carrying it proudly and I would wave with it. From time to time, Red Army men would stop me: 'Give,' to check whether it was sharp or blunt. It was blunt so they would give it back. So I carried it home. But then there was this column of supply vehicles following their main advance, and one of the soldiers yelled at me. After I came closer, he said: 'Show me!', so I would show him the saber and he would just put it in the car. And I said: 'That was a gift! From a Russian colonel!' And he said: 'What one hand giveth the other taketh away'. And that was it. So I have no memories of this Red Army colonel.”

“I believe that this nation of ours, with its thousand year old tradition among the states of Europe, does have a future. I believe in the young generation. I believe that the ideas of Masaryk and Havel will prevail. I believe that our youth, which has been given an opportunity I wasn't given, the opportunity to see the world, to learn languages, to make friends with anyone they like, would find its proper position. And that we have to be happy that being a part of the European Union is indeed a reason to be joyful for the whole nation. And that we are waiting for a new Václav Havel, who would lead us as equal members of the European community toward our common future.”