Marta Plášilová

"And we had the Gestapo. They were looking for all kinds of papers." - "And when did you have the Gestapo?" - "Well, the first time the Gestapo was with us was when the Heydrich terror was going on, when they were looking for a girl who was with the bicycle. I was that age and I lived in Libeň, they went to all these homes, so they came for that and then they came to our house about two or three times, looking for some papers apparently or leaflets. They just trashed the whole apartment, found nothing and left." - "Let's take it in order. This first visit here, how do you remember it? Did they suddenly barge in on you?" - "They burst in, unexpectedly at night. It was about quarter to eleven. We were asleep. My sister was older, so she went to open the door. She says, 'There's some guys in leather coats and they want in.' They pushed her away, they broke in, each had a gun in their hand. Now they dragged us all out of bed. There were five of us. We had to stand up against the wall to get free. Head against the wall, hands up, now they ran us all over to see if we had anything on, and then they started looting." -"They searched everything?" - "Everything, everything. In the basement, looking for the bike. To see if we had a bike." - "You have a great memory. Don't you remember, was it just the Gestapo, or was it some Czech cops with them?" - "No, there were no Czech policemen." - "That's such a horrible experience." - "They were guys in these long coats and they had these weird hats, knocked down into their foreheads. And now they were shouting, 'Hands up, hands down, sit down, lie down!' My brother and I were crying." - "They found nothing and left?" - "They found nothing. They left us some paper, I don't know what it was. And they left."

"They were my father's friends. My dad was the technical director of the Vetka cooperative and Frýba was the economic director. That was the Frýba family, they came from Holešov, they had two children, so they were friends. We used to go on trips. We had a little cottage and a garden in Dubeč near Běchovice. They used to go there with us. That kind of family friendship. Parents talked to each other, we kids played." - "Was that a bigger family?" - "They had two children." - "Did they live in Libeň too?" - "No, they lived in Vysočany, in Harfa." - "What happened to them, with the Frýbas?" - "First he left. They had the opportunity to go to Israel. But he didn't want to leave our country. He was also in some kind of resistance organization. So he went to the concentration camp first. She stayed here alone with the children for about another year and a half. We all helped them because they were in a bad way. Suddenly they were left without resources. She used to drive a cart around Libeň and sweep the streets with a star on her shirt. It was cruel." - "And you didn't stop seeing each other?" - "No, we didn't. We even accompanied them when she left the Libeň station with the children. There they were loading them into those freight cars. Like cattle." - "And that was in Libeň?" - "Yes, that was in Libeň. It was in different places in the forty-third." - "I thought those Prague Jews always had to go to Holešovice, first." - "Well, it was Holešovice and Libeň. When Holešovice was full, they left Libeň and there was a connection somewhere." - "And you went here to see Mrs. Frýbová off?" - "Yes, to escort her. That was terrible. I remember that as a kid, I was a girl, twelve or thirteen years old, how terrible it was. The baby dolls in my arms, the toys in my arms. Every little bundle. It was horrible."