Sergeant (ret.) Robert Mazurek

„Kousek od kanálu vedla asfaltová cesta, stály tam takové pěkné baráky, a v jednom z nich bylo naše stanoviště. Asi dvě stě metrů odtamtud na křižovatce byl dřevěný bunkr. Tam jsme chodili na hlídky. 28. října bylo nahlášena návštěva exilové vlády s Janem Masarykem. Chtěl jsem ho moc vidět a pořád jsem o tom mluvil. Měl jsem ale mít zrovna hlídku. Rotmistr Vrba mi řekl, že když si ji s někým vyměním, můžu zůstat a Masaryka vidět. Uprosil jsem jednoho kamaráda, aby za mě stráž vzal. Jmenoval se Václavek a byl z Karviné. Říkal, že je mu to jedno, jestli uvidí Masaryka, anebo ne. Delegace dorazila. Měli nasazené barety, aby nebyli moc nápadní. Přišel i Jan Masaryk. Se všemi se přivítal a povídá: ‚Co vy ostravští chachaři?‘ Pohovořili jsme, zasmáli se. Ptal se, jestli nám něco neschází. Návštěva trvala asi patnáct minut a delegace pokračovala na další stanoviště. Navštívili všechny naše vojáky. V té době spadla na bunkr, kde jsem měl hlídat, minometná mina a toho Václavka to zabilo.“

„Měli jsme strach do té lodi nastoupit. Zavřely se vrata a pořád se střílelo. Jeden námořník se ptal, kdo mluví německy. Bylo trochu směšné ptát se na to vojáků německé armády. Řekl nám: ‚Teď jsme na moři a tady jezdí vaší kamarádi. Až nás potopí, bude to vaše zodpovědnost. A vezměte si všichni na krk gumové kruhy, abyste se moc nenapili vody, protože je slaná.‘ Strašil nás tak, že jsme mohli vyletět z kůře. Ale dopadlo to dobře. Dopluli jsme a byli jsme spokojeni. Do armády (československé) jsme vstoupili s nadějí, že válka už nebude dlouho trvat. A měli jsme pocit, že bude pro nás důstojné, když uděláme něco pro republiku, když jsme byli předtím u Němců.“

“The only thing that I was really afraid of was the air raids and the bombings. The Allied airplanes were numerous, as many as there are flies in the air today. They were everywhere and you couldn’t make a move they wouldn’t notice. As soon as they’d noticed you, they were on your back. They didn’t just go after trains and railroads; they’d be after anything that moved. That’s what I was most afraid of. The only place you could hide from them was the forest. But the forests were full of French partisans who harassed you as well. So I was really afraid of the airplanes.”

“Our unit was staging an attack, five of us were sitting on a Cromwell tank, behind the turret and we were supposed to jump off at a certain location, disperse and move forward with the tank. But we got hit by a grenade. I don’t know exactly where it came from but there must have been a German in the nearby building. That’s the only possible explanation. There was a concrete column over the ditch and I was hidden behind that column. But there was a hole underneath the column. And I was hit on my leg and on the back. But there were others who went there and wiped out all of them. It was terrible to look at it. One German was laying there, his both legs blown off up to above his knees, begging us to shoot him. It was catastrophic. We were pretty trashed too, all covered in blood, dragging ourselves to the hospital. Hermann from Bohumín had his face smashed, he had a hole in his head, couldn’t see anything, all he was still able to do was to clinch to my jacket and I dragged him although I could barely walk myself.”

“We could already feel it, we knew that the invasion was coming. It was because of the terrible artillery shelling. It was obvious that they would come across the Channel. And then, when dawn came, you could see hundreds and hundreds of ships on the surface of the Channel. And each one of them was firing at our positions. It was terrific. It went very quickly afterwards. And the soldier in the trench or fortification had to hold out. The Germans still tried to fight the invasion off, to repel the attackers. But they had no chance. I was lucky to be with the machine guns. These were anti-aircraft machine guns but you’d be a fool if you dared to fire at an airplane. And the lesser officers were twice as afraid to do it. When the shelling started everyone just crawled into his hole and tried to survive the onslaught. So that was the invasion, I’ll never forget it. I remember the armored amphibious vehicles rolling out of the boats. The door opened like a big jaw and the vehicle rolled out. They were shooting at them, a lot of soldiers died there.”

“I’d like to add that I later served under a Jewish commander and that I had a lot of Jewish fellows in the army. My commander was a Jew, his name was Bondy. The sergeant was a Jew, too, his name was Koukal. These people never reprehended us for serving in the German army. There was one from Bohumín, Šajn was his name. And a certain Weiss from Bratislava, they were two brothers. Then there was Holender from Karviná. You sometimes hear that Jews don’t fight or that they didn’t fight in the war. That’s complete nonsense. These people were the bravest soldiers I’ve ever seen. They used to tell me stories about life in Palestine. That Bondy was a great man.”

“Hitler then needed these people, so he threatened them. Those who had a Polish citizenship kept it. Then there were the Sinti. Who stuck with his Czech citizenship was sent to the Protectorate. The Protectorate already existed. The frontier was in Ostrava, in Vrbice. Later they drove them away. And those who had possessions or were afraid for their families, those took the Silesian citizenship. The Germans then exploited this because they said that Silesia had always been German and so it belonged to Germany. In this way he claimed the right to all the people living in this region – they called them Volksdeutsche.”

“Captivity was… well, the aerial shelling was tremendous, everyone who survived was thankful. Then, about six o’clock in the evening, it calmed down a bit. A little later, we could see English tanks approaching our battered positions. Everybody who could would run towards the English and surrender. Even the Germans from the Reich surrendered – they were fed up with war already. There was one man, he was a bit older, I’d say around forty, forty-five. Even he surrendered because he’d had enough of it.”