Colonel Josef Novák

„I had these Canadian boots, they were perfect for sneaking. We were three. I always went first, then I lied down and the others would move forward again. That’s how we would do it. But instead of being really cautious and silent they were running and so the Germans spotted us and opened fire. The second guy was shot in the back and later died. I got shot in my leg because it sticked out. But I didn’t know I was shot. So we carried our wounded friend away and the doctors immediately came for him but still, he died because he had a fatal wound in the back. As I stood there I felt strangely well, I almost fell asleep. And our chief told me: “Bílý, are you wounded?” I said: “No”. And he said: “There’s blood on your leg.” It was just a splinter so they rubbed it in with something and it was fine. But what happened. Many years later I had a rush or something on that leg and suddenly a splinter fell out of the leg. It stayed there all that time!”

„My name is Josef Novák and in the army I had the code-name Jaroslav Bílý. I come from Těšín about which I’d like to talk a bit. It was one of the hardest hit regions of our country, the part of the country that suffered the most during the occupation – first there were the Poles and then the Germans. I was only fifteen in 1938 when Poland was the first to occupy the Těšín region. A year later, the Germans drove out the Poles and that’s how the war started. The Poles didn’t behave very well to the local population but the Germans were even worse. As a sixteen-year-old boy I had to watch the public execution of 24 people. There was a gallows and these 24 people were all hanged at the same time. It was a terrible sight, especially for a sixteen-year-old. The purpose of this was to discourage the population from rebelling against the occupation. What the Germans achieved, however, was earning the hatred of most of the people that lived there. They couldn’t stomach it – to watch the occupiers taking their land and hanging their people. The Germans declared the Těšín region or Silesia as it was called to be part of the Third Reich. That meant all men from that region had to serve in the German army. I was drafted when I was eighteen. As I didn’t speak German they put me in a labor camp. Actually it was a kind of a hospital for wounded horses. So we worked in stables, caring for the horses. At first we were in France, then we went to Russia to collect wounded horses. As we were rather a field hospital then a military corps, they transferred us back to France. After the allied invasion in France I and two Poles and a guy from Yugoslavia managed to cross to the other side to the allies. There we joined our respective armed forces – I joined the Czechoslovak army, the Poles joined the Polish army and the Yugoslav joined the Yugoslav army. There followed a brief training and we went back to France, but this time as soldiers to fight at Dunkerque.”

„I was a passionate member of the Sokol youth movement, we founded the movement again and made our erstwhile enemy the Poles. This even led to my arrest in 1948. In February 1948, a lot of Poles entered the national committee, there was in fact a Polish majority. I think there were like two Czechs and six Poles or so. So they ordered me to come for an interrogation. At the interrogation they told me that I allegedly had anti-state talks at a Sokol rally. I told them: “Well gentlemen, I wasn’t even there at the rally you’re talking about.” The insurance company didn’t give me leave. That wrecked their plans a bit. Then they said that still they had something else. They were searching for something in my files. They said: “We’d like to know how come that you earned all your medals in such a short time.” I was awarded a Military Medal – only six Czechs received this medal. I got mine for capturing a German mortar platoon. Then I have a battle cross for bravery II and other decorations from the English. “Well, I was a good soldier.” I replied. They then claimed that I participated in some anti-state courses. “What anti-state courses?” Of course they couldn’t answer that question. That was on Friday evening. On Saturday I went to the insurance company where I worked and met one policeman, a relative of me. He told me they have a warrant on me. I said: “a warrant? What for? I didn’t do anything.” “What’s written there?” “Unreliable”. After I learned about the warrant I left the country on that very same Saturday. That’s how I got to Germany.

„I saw a camouflaged trench and I also remembered that I heard the mortar fire coming from that direction – pfíí, pfíí. I went there and saw a hole. So I thought I’d put a round there and then jump in. Unfortunately, my Sten Gun got jammed. I had to fix it, put a new clip inside and then it was ok. So this trench had five entrances dug in the sand – it was all sand as it was dune-land. I started to shoot at the entrances and shouted “everyone get out”. They actually started to crawl out, they were giving it up. It was a mortar platoon. More then 30 men strong. Then this officer came and said he wants to speak to an officer. I shot a round over his head and told him: “No officer, everybody get out.” I didn’t want to let them look over the trench so they couldn’t actually see how few we are. So they had to climb up one by one. Suddenly I heard a sound behind me. I turned around and saw that it’s one of our people. His name was Karel Börger. As the Bürger sounded too much like a German name he wanted us to call him Charles Bergeaux... There’s even more to it. He was also Jewish and he pleaded me to carry him – he was quite heavy. “Why do you want me to carry you? He said: “In case I’m wounded, please don’t leave me there.” And I said: “Don’t worry, if you’re with me I won’t let you stay there.” “But I won’t be able to carry you, you’re too heavy for me.” So I had to demonstrate to him, that I could at least drag him. When he saw me going into that trench, he followed me and that was great because he knew perfect German. He started to shout at the Germans in perfect German. It almost looked like he was a German, too. And these Germans really obeyed his commands, they started to climb out of the trench. So we dragged all of them out.”