Ing. Petr Lewi

“Čeněk Polák's farm was on the edge of the village. And she had this table back down in the basement where they used to bake bread. And they would come in the evening, maybe they were even listening to the London broadcast. Well, they kept telling me that I should keep my mouth shut while in the village, that I shouldn't speak about these people, as they were men of diverse nationalities. And while I was there the war ended, I can remember that quite well. As Germans made this raid on partisans and they shot this one unfortunate fellow right in the village square. And as those thing were going on, my uncle Polák said: 'I'm out of feed, we have to go to get some fresh feed.' And he went. And my aunt was upset, but he said: 'Péťa is going with me.' So I had to go with him. 'And he would keep an eye on everything so there would be no problem.' And as we went there was this raid going on in the village, there was shooting going on. Villagers went running across the hill to the rocks and I remember us going to get some fresh feed. And there was tracer fire all around, something I would never forget. And my uncle, as he served in the Legion, was quite courageous and he acted as nothing was going on. And after we cut the grass, we were behind this hill, so we were quite safe, and we loaded everything, he said: 'You are a scout now, Petr. Advance towards the farm and find out if there's a way.' So I did what I was told as I just obeyed my uncle, but I was afraid. That's for sure.”

“In 1968, we arranged with my sister and my brother-in-law in Liberec that we would go to Yugoslavia, and both our families went to Yugoslavia in two cars. We went home in the second part of August and I went through Hungary. On the night from 20th to 21st of August we were camping near Bratislava. We spent a night in a camp and we heard this roar and in the morning I went... Early in the morning I went to the reception desk and they told me that the Soviets ambushed us. So I got in, I had a Trabant car back then, and the four of us – me, my wife and my two kids – we went to Carlsbad along the advancing armies. So the tanks were passing me as I went and so on, but I was such a fool that I just kept driving. I was heading for Brno, of course, but they told me to go the other way, some Czechs, stating that there was some shooting going on, on the road to Prague, so I headed for Vodňany and then to Rožmitál and Pilsen. I went in that direction and there was even this thing, as I came to some South Bohemian town that the Soviet army didn't reach yet, and there were people waiting, and there I went in my Trabant, so that was quite funny, but I was quite terrified by what was happening to be honest. “

“Well, the consequences, the consequences, the worst consequences, my friends, were those that my children had to suffer at that time. As you don't know that children of people expelled from the Party weren't allowed to study. Like my daughter who finished primary school – as back then, Janáček's school changed it residence, it was in Poděbradská Street, now there is a nursing school, back then there was a primary school, and it was relocated to Šmeralova Street. And my daughter finished the school in 1975 and of course there was no chance of her going to a grammar school in Carlsbad, to that of yours or any other in Carlsbad. And the deputy director, Saša Karpovičová... There are those Karpovičs living there, they are physicians. And she was with Jarda Brůha, who was the director. And after that there was Jitka Žahourková, but that's not important, so she said: 'Petr, the best thing you could do is to try your luck in Aš.' In Aš there was a textile school. 'Maybe they would admit her, even with such bad references like hers, as you had been expelled from the Party.' So my dear Sašenka went there in 1975 for an entrance examination. And she did so well, my daughter. And of course, they didn't admit her.”

“On August 21st I was in Yugoslavia with my whole family, we were down there in August, back then when there was still Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito. And we went back through Hungary. My brother-in-law had a visa so he could go through Austria – they were also there, my sister's husband with the whole family. And we had to go through Hungary and on the night from 20th to 21st of August we slept in a camp on the outskirts of Bratislava. And there was this plane, like a statue, a decoration, that's a thing I remember. And there was such a roar on that night in the camp north of Bratislava. There was no highway yet, just this main road to Moravia. And there were some military cars and tanks as soldiers from Hungary came, they invaded Bratislava from Hungary, that was much easier than to go all the way to Prague. And I went to the reception desk. Russians were invading us, but there were also Hungarian troops. The invasion force consisted of East German, Polish, Hungarian and Bulgarian troops, Ceauşescu was the only one who refused to go. But everyone else participated. And I had this Trabant car so I took my family and I drove on that 21st of August all the way up to Brno. As I said, there was no highway. But we didn't go to Prague, we went through Telč, Vodňany and Rožmitál, and from Rožmitál we went to Pilsen. And I would just overtake them! I swear! I drove like mad in my Trabant, passing all those columns, that's how crazy I was.”

“There is the Bohemian Paradise area all around, with all the rocks. And there were, we used to call them partisans, but in fact, there was this group of French, Belgian and Russian people who somehow managed to escape the camps. And later maybe some paratroopers came who had some orders from someone. But there were many of them. And they survived outside in the wild. And it was this winter 1944/45, and in the autumn of 1944 they started to come. And my uncle had a farm on the outskirts of the village so it was quite a safe thing to do. In the basement my aunt had this oven where she used to bake bread and there was also a table. And they would come, as I remember, in the evening, and I couldn't say a word to anyone. And they were listening to the London broadcast. And my uncle spoke Russian so he would translate for the Russians, and my mother spoke French so she would translate for the French and the Belgians, what was going on and where the fighting was. Well, that was quite an adventure.”