Marianna Pevná

“Mum was helping my uncle in his shop and she always went home in the afternoon. She walked by the cemetery and stood in front of it. I was leaving my grandma’s house and I stood on the pavement and the siren started and she shouted at me: ‘Don’t come here!’ I would have crossed the street to my mum. So, I did not go and stood there and I held a doll in my hand. It flew and… These were such short bangs. I still have it in me, such things like that I stood by the wall. I still feel it today. I just still have the feeling of the terrible fear. After that I had some tonsillitis or I was ill and my mum said that I really had a breakdown and the doctor said that I had some nervous shock.”

“Kristýna Straková had a father and he deserted and ran away from the military service [Wehrmacht]. He hid by his father-in-law and he in fact saved our family lives. The Soviets moved along our block of flats. There was a wide road. It is near the borders and when Dresden was burning there was a terrible red glare here. We saw that Dresden was burning. So, they moved along us… My curious auntie who was twenty-eight at that time, was looking from the window. Back then people did not lock their doors as today and one Russian came and wanted my auntie. He came where he thought was the window. But there was my grandfather, the police inspector, and he got in his way. So, he got hit by the rifle butt to his stomach and they lined us up against the wall, the whole family. We stood there with our hands up. And my mum held my hand and he hit her with the riffle to her hand. She was not allowed to hold me because she had to hold her hands up and I as well. And he, from the Strakovi family, was next to us and he heard it all and started to run away. And this saved our lives because when he ran, the Russian ran after him and we in the meantime flew to the double attic. There was the first attic and then there was only a ladder where only a chimney sweep climbed. So, we climbed on the second attic and we pulled the ladder up and we were gone. And we lived at the double attic for fourteen days. We locked it all down and we went there only in the night.”

“What a courage we children had, I take my hat off to me and my friend who was the daughter of a director of a Czech school. We two always stole something at home, for instance soup and put it into a can or something and we carried it to the camp to our friends. We even brought back to that camp their things which they gave us. It was I would say heartfelt. After all the girls… We did not do anything to each other. It was not our fault that Hitler went insane and did what he did. And those girls were so happy! And in order for us to get there, the inspector Müller [grandfather] got the worst of it. We always took a little bit of his tobacco and carried it in a small bag to those who guarded it there. And this way we got to the girls. They called them to us and we gave them their things. Overall, all things considered, it all ended with a happy end. Those girls were the Altman twins. When I got married, I had a dreadfully beautiful embroidered wedding dress. At that time, 63 years earlier, it was an amazing thing. The veils sold here did not match it at all. They looked like bug nets. My mum said: ‘Well, try to ask girls if they would not have there something soft what would match the dress.’ So, I had a wedding on Saturday and on Thursday I got a package with a veil by air. It was sent to me by the Altman girls and I have always recalled the time I brought them back the bird in a birdcage. His name was Pipin. The guards allowed me to do it. They were happy. And I later got the veil. I even cried because I was so moved. It was something so heartfelt!”