Pater Bohumil Měchura

“We lived with the feeling that our nation was facing a threat and that it needed help, and therefore there were many guys who were organizing various activities, although at that time it was forbidden to form any associations, with the exception of folklore groups. It is pitiful and comical at the same time that in order to save themselves from bankruptcy, the cymbal band had to travel to Prague and be presented to those gentlemen and play for them in order to be able to pay their activities. There was one older cymbal player with an old cymbal, who was a great opponent of the Fascists, and now he had to perform for Moravec and his bunch. The news reached our town, because the weekly news in our cinema informed about the event, and it was a disaster and great shame for them that they had to do something so humiliating and perform in a concert for those people.”

“You are the weakest and so you will go to the Haná region to get better. It was fine there, but only until February 1948. Afterwards we could see immediately what was happening. There were Boy Scouts and they ordered me to do something and to join the Youth Union with all of them. We refused and they ordered us to give them our money and safe immediately. I can attest that this negative experience had an immediate impact on them and none of them ever joined the Youth Union.”

“It was at the time of terror following the assassination of Heydrich, and on the last day of school we all gathered and we waited for one of the boys, Karel Dymeš, who was to read the congratulations. His family was involved in a group that protected the paratroopers, and this Dymeš was among them. The boy has not come to school because the family had been arrested by the Gestapo the night before.”

“People were asking at that time: What to do with them? Is there some collective guilt, which would make all of them guilty? But it is true that back then they were all happy when Hitler took over their region. There were festivals and celebratory speeches in churches. Only social democrats, communists and some smart people were against it, and they suffered for it later. They said something in protest and they were sent to the front immediately. There was great anger and thirst for revenge in the nation, and at that time it was not possible for these two nations to stay together.”

“It was still under construction and they needed wagons, and local workmen, carpenters, horse handlers, masons thus had to work there, and there was a possibility of contact with the prisoners. They were taking messages from them and for a certain period of time they were able to bring packages to them. Many people were involved in it and it was a form of anti-fascist resistance.”

“Personal testimony. When the Czech man carried the German man, he checked his belongings and if he found something nice in his suitcase, he stole it. That person told me about it. And when he turned towards Rešov, he did not say anything nice at all.”