Alois Navrátil

"Somehow around February 1945, the Germans were retreating on all fronts, weren't they. And in that small town of ours they started building trenches and barricades to stop the advance of the Red Army. And right in front of our house, four ragged, dirty men were digging foundations, they were either prisoners of war or those who had escaped from the front, and a soldier was standing over them and guarding them. Well, our father, a humanist, was looking at them, so he felt sorry for the four guys. And then we could even raise pigs, they allowed us, but we had to pay the obligatory amount of lard for the German army. And my dad, the humanist, said, 'You know what?' He called my brother, cut four slices of bread and put a slice of bacon on it. 'Take it to the boys so they can eat.' So the brother went there - and then the soldier said: 'Wer bist du?' I mean: 'What are you doing here? Was ist das? What's going on?' 'Well, I brought the boys a little treat.' And he said, 'Das nicht. Not so.' And he took the slices with the bread, dumped it on the ground and trampled it in the mud."