Blažena Lébrová

“We could not go there, it was all protected. Just watch kids, as we were all so curious. So we found peculiar ways to get there and it was a terrible sight. And I was strictly forbidden to go in there to have a look. But I could not spoil the fun. So I went along with the crowd. And I came back home and mum pointed at me right at the doorway and daddy asked me: ‚Come to me.‘ So I went to see him and truth to be said, I never got told off or beaten, none of it. And dad said: ‚You went to Třebušice.‘ And I kept silent as I would not lie. And he said: ‚You went to Třebušice!‘ And I replied: ‚Yes.‘ He took his belt off and once and the last time in my life I got a beating from him as I did something forbidden. Dad said: ‚This will stay with you all your life, you made yourself harm by not obeying us first and another time by see that.”

„Daddy used to hide me at the wardrobe, as there was the best hiding place, and when everything was over and the air raid gone, we heard the long sirens going off and we stayed like statues and the town officer woke us up to leave the house immediately to evade it, as in the next courtyard a bomb was found. So we left immediately and waited for three days to see what the bomb does and our daddy had a rabbit hutch with fifty rabbits and they saved us from starving during war and he was worried about them. So he crept to the hutch secretly to feed his rabbits. It took over three days and we came back and just imagine that the bomb didn’t explode. It was the kind, which got boycotted during production and everything stayed together in one piece, even our house, just our window glass was broken.“