František Pavelka

“The worst time came when the war with Russia broke out. At that time they began transporting captured Russians to the camp. Our concentration camp was the slaughterhouse of Berlin. They were bringing the Russians there, and during the day we could hear somebody reciting prayers and at night they were shooting them, killing them. They went to their death and they were shot in the back of their head and their bodies then burnt the following day. We thus got into a horrible situation. There was so much stench. At that time they allowed us to play if we had some musical instruments. Naturally, we didn’t have any. But as these men were coming from the front, they were losing their caps and gloves and things like that, and typhus began to spread. It spread in Oranienburg, but it got into our camp, too, and a quarantine was declared. It was just during Christmas. I think that those other two hundred students were to be released on Christmas. Some had been released on Hitler’s birthday and two hundred students were released on Christmas. That was normal. But there was that quarantine over Christmas. January came. On January 23rd, the quarantine ended and my name was listed among the two hundred of those who were released.”

“We had not been given anything to eat at all during that time. We were as hungry as wolves. At night between Saturday and Sunday we stopped in Oranienburg. An order was shouted: ´Alles raus!´ Everybody get out! We were told to form lines of ten people, and we began marching into a dark forest, and we thought they would shoot us there and that would be the end. We were terrified. But eventually, after about half an hour of walking, we suddenly stopped in front of a high wall and there was a gate with a sign: Arbeit macht frei. We knew that this was probably a concentration camp. We entered through this gate. Inside there was a place where all prisoners were being counted three times every day. It was huge, and we were ordered to stand at that place, and we were standing there from midnight till the morning. In the morning we were told to move to a wooden barrack. As we were passing through the door, we all had to surrender our suitcases, money, watches. And if somebody had rings or jewellery, they had to remove it. Then they shaved our heads, we had to undress and take a shower and then we were issued prisoners’ uniforms. Those were some old officers’ uniform. They didn’t care about the sizes. They all told us: ´You will then exchange it among yourselves later and find the size that fits you.´ We all got dressed somehow. When we were together, and there were about one hundred and fifty of us, we were taken to one wooden barrack.”

“To conclude I would like to say one more thing. When the communist dictatorship ended in 1989, we got rid of the dictatorship and we began to live in democracy. We had democracy, but we didn’t know how to live democratically and we still don’t know it. The whole nation confused democracy with anarchy and though that everything was allowed. They began stealing whatever they could. Banks, shops, and such, but not only this, but they were robbing us, the citizens, and they are still doing it. We can never be certain, not at night, not during the day, not at home or on the streets. The situation is very serious. For Masaryk once said: ´Only the nation that observes the basic principles of morality can be happy.´ And what are those principles? You find them in Ten Commandments. You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, honour your father and mother. And now you see it. Take our youth. More than fifty percent of families are broken, they don’t live in proper marriage. Children living on the street. Smoking, drinking, taking drugs. And such is the future of the Czech nation. Dear friends: we need to realize that we all are sons and daughters of Czech fathers and Czech mothers. We form a Czech family. We need to love each other. And help each other. We need to build some order together. A society where there is justice, honesty, safety and where all help one another. If we succeed in having good families and educating our children and so on, then we shall form a nation and state where not only us, old people, will be happy, but also and above all our children. May God help us in this. Thank you.”

“Those who were by the window found out that we were heading in the direction of Třebová and on to Prague. We expected that if nothing happened, we would be released in Prague and go home. But when we arrived in Prague, I could already see out of the window a little bit, and what I saw was absolutely terrible. There were students from Prague. They had been beaten. It was wet and muddy at the airport in Ruzyně. Some of them were covered in blood, some were only in their pajamas, some barefooted and so on. Other train cars were attached to the train and the Prague students had to get on. The train was now complete. When it started moving, we knew that we were going to Germany.”

“They released me from the concentration camp and I returned home. I went to Olomouc, of course, and I had to report to the Gestapo station there every Saturday. It was from January till March, and in March they asked me: ´Do you have any girlfriend?´ I said: ´Yes, I do.´ – ´Since when?´ – ´Since my student years.´ – ´Within a week you will report that you got married so that you don’t have time to think of counterrevolutions and coups and such anymore.´ I said: ´Fine, not a bad idea.´ And so I went home and told them that I had been ordered to marry. And really, I we got marriage on April 30th. We are just about to celebrate our seventieth anniversary. And this was all done on the order of that rascal.”