Miroslav Nový

"Authorized people started coming to convince people to join cooperatives. Some were for, some against. My dad didn't want to join the cooperative, so we didn't. So, they turned us into kulaks. I came back from the mine because my mother wrote to me that my father had fallen ill, he couldn't work, my brother was in the military service, there was no one to farm here, please come back. Therefore, I terminated my employment relationship and returned home and farmed. My brother came from the military service and he was there for half a year. When we weren't working in the fields, we carried long logs with our horses to the railway in Cebiv or to Černošín for the sawmill. There, however, one communist from the village didn't like the fact that I was at home and not working, so in order not to be arrested, I had to go to work."

“I was lying outside on a blanket in my shorts, because it was a beautiful day, and I was reading the Pulp magazine. It was shortly after eleven o'clock when the city radio began to report that enemy planes were approaching. The person became alert. I stopped reading and looked at the sky. I didn't see any planes, but I could hear the hum as the bombers were flying clumsily. It has such a strange sound. Suddenly explosions. So, I jumped up and one can see from those Vysočany, from that Hloubětín you can see Libeň and Karlín, how the bombs were falling there. I didn't even walk through the door. The bedroom window was open, so I climbed in through it and began to get dressed. I pulled on my pants and jacket. I had such a stupid habit of not untying my ankle boots. This is how I always put the heel on the toe and took them off. But then I was barefoot and couldn't get into them. The bombs were falling. So, I left the ankle boots as ankle boots and ran barefoot. I ran into the shelter by the camp, but it was full. I said to myself: 'Jesus Christ, it's full here, a bomb will fall here and we'll all be dead.' So, I ran across the field. There is a track under the Kbely airport and there are channels under the track where I crawled. I began to think that they were bombing the tracks and the airfield that was directly behind the tracks. So, I climbed out and ran barefoot all the way to Satalice. I don't know how far it is. I didn't choose the way. It was terrible.“

"On the March 15, even nature rebelled against the occupation of Czechoslovakia. It was terrible weather that I have never experienced before or since... A terrible gale. Snow was falling. You couldn't see anything. And suddenly word spread in the factory that the German army was coming to Strakonice. Of course, that the machines stopped and that the production stopped. We went out. I was in the workshop closest to the gatehouse. Part of that German army came and entered the factory. We stood as far as the gatehouse. I was in the front row. The Werkschutz opened the gate and they started calling us to disperse. But nobody moved. We stood in silence. So, the commander gave the order to use bayonets and they started to push us back. As I was in the first row, the back rows did not move and they pushed the bayonets into us. We had to shout to them to retreat, or perhaps, they would stab us, or I don't know.'

"The first three German families who were displaced took the train from Cebiv. I was tasked by the mayor to wake them [the people] up at three o'clock in the morning and tell them that they were going to be displaced, so they should pack and they could only take sixty kilos. That was a tragedy when I was there banging on the door, waking them up and telling them. Jesus Christ, Joseph... Crying, nervousness. They took things in their hands, put them down, another thing. They were running here and there. Just confusion. They didn't want to go on that train, but the police officers were already there, and as they say, they kicked them onto that train. They kicked them and pushed them there."

"Since the Germans prevailed in Vimperk, we didn't have an easy time. Because they constantly attacked us and called us Czech dogs, Czech pigs and the like. When we finished school and rode our bikes home, the German youngsters waited for us at the end of the town, that place is still called Na Fišerce. There, they were equipped with stones behind the chapel and chased us for a kilometer to a kilometer and a half swearing and throwing stones at us."