"They brought them dinner, to Kristek, bread with lard and tea with plum brandy. And they were offering it to us. And we said we were after dinner, that we would not eat. And they said, 'We don´t do it like that. I eat, you eat.' So, we had to eat it with them and then they wanted to know what it was. We told them that it was tea and vodka, and they said, "We do not understand, we are used to having tea and vodka separately."
"I just saw the town hall building shake and I heard the explosion, of course we all got scared and so we let the board fall, both me and the other one on the other side. And the board fell, and the friend who was beating it under me, it tore his hand off, a shard. One grenade fell opposite to Kristek´s in the park, there were pine trees. It exploded at the pine tree, at the roots, and apparently it saved my life, because as I fell, I was sheltered by a car while the shards were flying. And then, as they disassembled it, they found that the boards were completely shattered by the shards.”
"When they found out that I could speak German a little bit, they invited me to their car and asked me if I would go to a pub for their lunch. They offered me one mark to bring them lunch. I took care of my one-year-old sister, so I always had to put her to sleep and they left the thermos container at home, I took the thermos container on my back and went to the pub to get the lunch for those soldiers. František Janeček and his wife managed the pub, he was a good manager. And they always gave me lunch, but I didn't bring soups, they cooked soups on the stove themselves, probably from the cans they had. And I brought them lunch and I got one mark. I was glad that I won ten crowns and was able to contribute to my dad's shopping. "
Josef Kubiš was born on January 8, 1925 in Horní Bečva in Moravian Wallachia. When his mother Anežka died in 1939, his father Jan started looking for a new bride and Josef had to leave the grammar school to take care of his younger siblings. At the beginning of World War II, he helped the family budget by bringing lunches to Wehrmacht soldiers for one mark. After his father got married for the second time, Josef started his apprenticeship at Vojtěch Kristek´s place, it was a hardware store in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. Here he also experienced the events of the last days of the war. Twenty civilians lost their lives in the nearly two-day battle for the city. Joseph miraculously escaped the shrapnel from the grenade that would kill him. His friend from the Kristek’s shop was not so lucky, the explosion tore his arm away. Josef also recalls how he helped a Soviet soldier with navigation. He joined the military service in 1945. Due to the fact that he served over time because of severe inflammation of the pleura, he spent the Victorious February 1948 with the garrison in Ružomberok, Slovakia, when as soldiers they had to maintain increased alertness for several days. After returning to civilian life, Josef joined the Communist Party, completed his pedagogical education in Varnsdorf, and then spent his whole life as a teacher and later as a school principal. He and his wife Maria raised two sons, Karel and Josef.
