Věra Nývltová

„Museli jsme jít navštívit Śanderu v nemocnici. Šli jsme Lipkama. Ještě tam nebyla ta silnice, ten okruh. Šli jsme cestou k nemocnici. Držela jsem maminku za ruku. Já jsem byla tak šťastná, že po tak dlouhý době maminku vidím. Držela jsem jí jak klíště. A vzpomínám si jak maminka říká bratrovi: ῝Jestli ta holka pozná Šanderu a promluví, tak nás okamžitě zastřelej. ῝ A já jak jsem byla vyděšená, tak jsem si řekla, že nebudu vůbec nic říkat. Přišli jsme k nemocnici, tam stálo několik těch gestapáků v černej uniformách. Byli tam dva vysoký psi zřejmě dobrmani a odvedli nás na chirurgii do pokoje, kde ležel Šandera. Já ho vidím před sebou. Takovej úzkej pokoj, dvě postele a tam u okna ležel ovázanej Šandera. Já jsem ho samozřejmě okamžitě poznala. Ho donutili a on musel říct: ῝Věruško pamatuješ si, jak jsem k vám chodil a nosil jsem ti čokoládu?῝ Já vím, jak mi maminka stiskla ruku a já nic. Maminka to byla statečná žena, tak řekla: ῝Tak dost už tý komedie, vidíte, že jsme toho člověka v životě neviděli῝ a sebrala nás a odešla. Do vězení už zpět potom nešla a už nám dali pokoj v tom pětačtyřicátým.“ 30:48 – 33:04

„Tři dny ho mučili strašlivým způsobem. To je to, co jsem vyslechla jako dítě. Tak se trápím dodnes. Svázali ho do kozelce, tloukli ho, oči mu vypíchali, ruce zlomili. Tátovi bylo 40 let. Byl to mladej zdravej člověk. A když už se na to hradecký gestapo nemohlo dívat, pozvali Leinera a Nachtmana. Nachtman byl boxer, poloviční Němec, sudeťák a surovej člověk. Příšerným způsobem ho zmasakrovali. Potom pozvali k němu jeho bratra a řekli mu: 'Takhle budeš vypadat, když nebudeš mluvit.'“ 15:40 - 16:40

“Mom had to clean the director’s office, and some other rooms like the accounting room. She was also cleaning the interrogating cells and she saw dad’s ragged clothes and blood there. She then realized what had happened. She asked the Czech wardens what happened and they told her that he was dead, that he had been beaten to death in a terribly brutal way. He allegedly didn’t look like himself at all, his eye was knocked out, arms broken, and they carried him down the stairs in a blanket. We never learned what they did with him.”

“Dad worked as an engine-driver and so he had great opportunities for transporting the transmitters in the locomotives. Moreover, he had a large family, he had come from a family of seven children, and he got all his family involved in it. His brother-in-law, Krist, his brother Franta Vachek, and everyone who lived nearby were helping with moving the transmitters so that they would not be broadcasting from the same place. Jan Vachek was in Čárnka. It was him who spoke when they arrested my father, because they led him to my dad, who was badly beaten, and they threatened him: ´You’ll look like this if you don’t speak.´ One cannot blame him for telling them something. But he didn’t know about everything. Only dad knew where the paratroopers were. Dad didnt them this. They paratroopers were thus able to spend several months undisturbed living with the Žabka family.”

“Šandera even had a railman’s uniform made, and he would walk around the Prague suburb in the uniform, carrying a milk tin can, and looking so inconspicuous. Dad told us and our neighbours that they were engine-driver trainees and that he was training them. They were thus coming to our place very often. Although I was only five years old, I remember them very vividly, because they were bringing chocolate for me. Chocolate was something unimaginable during the Protectorate. Ordinary people had no chance to buy chocolate. And Šandera played various board games with me, like "Sorry!". They would stay with us until the evening and then go somewhere, to Nový Hradec, for example, or to see Olga Bartošková. There was probably a closer relationship between those two.”

“When the local Gestapo men were no longer able to look at it, they sent two boxers in there and they finished him off. Nachtmann was arrested by Russians. He allegedly spent six years there. But I don’t know if it is true or not. He was then released and he was working as a dentist in Prague around 1968. I remember that I told my brother at that time: ´How is it possible that such a man, such a beast, is free? I will find out where he lives, ring the bell and throw vitriol in his face.´ I wanted to do it. My brother said to me: ´For God’s sake, don’t do this, you’d get imprisoned because of him.´ I still regret that I haven’t done it.”

“I remember that we went to Koruna. Cars were there; not tanks, only cars. As we walked home, one car turned in the Habrmanova Street and I remember that I brought two young Russian soldiers home to my mom because they were hungry. Mom served them potato soup, she had nothing else, and they picked some cherries from the big cherry tree that was in the yard. I remember that I felt sorry for them because they were young gaunt boys. I remember only that, nothing else.”