Ludmila Mikulčíková

“The Russian soldiers have not stayed for a long time. As we had those cows and I still remind my sister: ´What did you think to take the cows from the barn of the old lady and lead them through the whole village, when the Russians arrived on horses?´ Two soldiers and a female soldier in the middle. And they rode through the village and looked very well and proud. There were holes and ruins everywhere, and these cows were afraid of their horses, and I was just a girl ... so we let them and brought them home, and there were Russians in our house. And the one soldier came to us the first night and wanted a drink. So my daddy poured him some, but he kept pouring it out and then he was staring at Tonuša [the older sister]... Mom, she was barely alive. And at the same time the commander found out that the soldier was not at home, it was eleven o'clock in the night, so he went looking for him and found him with us and got sent to the front immediately. And in front of our house there were no houses, there were just fields and there were seven cannons buried right there. But I remember such a little poster, such a bony hand with the claws painted, and there it was: 'If I get rid of you, you will perish.' 'It was already a warning from the Germans that communism would rule us. Well it was shown all over in the corners, such a great hand with such nails... on the 19th [of April] the Russians came and they also plundered the fields, which were sown, it was all eaten by the horses. But it all recovered and we were glad to had freedom. But how long for...”

“In September they announced they would get to the methane, which I sent him to go. So he went to work and he did it, and then when Jožinek was born in the year 1957, they fired him from the job until daddy joins the cooperative... the municipal office, all communist were there... and the young one may go to work. So they left him at home. I was trying to make as much as living, and he stayed half a year at home I think. And then doctor Lédlová came over to check on him, how he looks and how we lived. And she came to us in the worst misery. He was down with influenza, I two young children, and the doctor came and said he needs to eat well. I say, "But how? From his job he was fired, when his father-in-law signed up until his father-in-law signed for the cooperative, only then he could look for a job.´ - ´No, you need to file a request at the village municipality, he has to go to work, a family is threatened here, they have to allow him to work.´ That's how we wrote it, and they said: ´When the old man signs, the young one can go to work.´ And nothing was happening. Well, then, cooperative was established and we were already so exhausted, totally done, farmers, we too. Because we were still counted us among the farmers. We had a horse and cows and pigs as it used to be in the farm. And so the farmers did not want to. But then they were against them, their children were fired, so they agreed and then went to get signed in the cooperative.”