Jiří Kupilík

„We had a large yard. Towards the end of the war, the Germans parked two lorries of ammunition right in front of our shed. Then, the Americans were already advancing, they were checking from airplanes where the Germans were moving, the airplane navigated them. So we got two shrapnels right to the yard. Luckily, it did not it the house where we lived. Had it exploded, it would destroy everything and kill us… there were two large holes in the ground where the shrapnel exploded. We had such a tall henhouse, two-storeyed, in brick. Half of the top floor was torn down. I know that I was in the hallway then and the pressure wave threw me against the wall. We went to hide to the cellar where we stayed until the fire ceased.“

„We had 22 hectares of fields and forests. Two hectares of forest, twenty hectares of fields and meadows. As a boy, I was not really into agriculture, I bore a grudge. Even at the age of ten, when I went to school in Domažlice, I had to help. We had quite some land but not that much mechanisation. We had two pairs of horses and other livestock. Only later, we had a binder but no tractor, no combine tresher, no way. Everything was done with horses, by hand, so I had to help. When I returned from school, there was a note on the table that said: “Your lunch is in the oven, when you’re done eating, come join us at Kaménka.‘ That was one of the fields. When I wanted to go for a swim in summer, I had to take my bike – I couldn’t bathe in our pond, it was too muddy – and I and my friends would ride to Nový Dvůr. It was about a kilometre and half from Spáňov, there wasa nice pond. I could leave at about eight or nine in the evening. On Sundays, there was no work, Chodsko was pretty religious back then so Sundays were obsesrved. We did not work on Sundays, never, but from Monday till Saturday, it was all work. So I knew school and then I knew work. I was actually the oldest so I had to help out.“

„They transferred me to Roudnice nad Labem to the army band. There was the Josef Haken Military Political Academy where the students attended a two-year-course. Those were political advisors who graduated as First Lieutenats. The half-year courses were for army bigwigs, from Major upwards. But it was great there, it was right in the Lobkowicz castle. We were lodged in a sort of cottage in the garden and the mess was right in the castle. There was a service company where the kitchen staff, guards and musicians served. And we were in the compulsory service and we went to the mess which was in the castle. And because there were those army bigwigs, we lived like barons. There were waitresses serving us. They put food on our plates and brought it to us.“