Zdeňka Pohlová

“During the last days of the war, I remember clearly how the Germans were retreating A German military unit, all the buttons on the uniform buttoned up, marching in ranks down the street from the airport, (our house) was the first one which they passed, all neatly tucked in, all tip-top, not a button missing. They marched down the street, I do not know how long it could take, and in a quarter or half an hour, the Russians appeared. It was quite interesting, all the Russians looked like children, they were such young boys, were sometimes wearing casually buttoned or unbuttoned coats, the machine guns, everyone was laughing, people came running into the street and hugged them. It was very spontaneous. But also when the Germans were retreating, they stormed into our house just before they left. We were living in the basement because of air raids on Pardubice, we spent in there nights and maybe also days. So two German soldiers with pistols stormed into our house, put a gun to my mom's head, and probably told her they were going to shoot her and her children. We did not understand, but she spoke German very well, she used to work at the courthouse, so she gave them bikes. They wanted the bikes so that they could escape, so she gave them to them. If we had not had the bikes, we would not have survived it.”

“I can still remember that he told us that they might have suspected him and that someone wondered why the Gestapo had not got the letter, so they came to see him. He got out of the post office thanks to a trick, he told them he was a repairman. There were overalls of a repairman who had been there before. So he changed into them and he carried some tools. He was hiding a gun in the pocket under them but when they asked him what was in his pocket, he took out a screwdriver and some tools. They let him out, he left and could not return home and joined the partisans. There was an airport, so they were operating there, were trying to harm Germans, to put it simply, they were active.”

“I spent the war period in Vysoké Mýto, there were no fights there but I remember it. My father worked at the post office. I used to go over and bring him dinner at night when I was a child. He used to stay longer at the post office. When he locked the door behind me, he was in the office on the first floor and he sorted the letters there and he threw many letters into the stove. When I asked him why he did it, he told me those were letters of denunciation. That it was clear according to the address which read 'esteemed Gestapo office in Pardubice.’ He saved many people, however, I was not allowed to talk about it.”

“When the beginning of World War II was approaching, or rather the occupation of Sudetenland was, when the mobilization was announced, my father as the first lieutenant was in charge of defence in Kořenov. He was the commander of light fortification objects, the bunkers. When it was decided that the Germans would get the territory, all the Czechs had to retreat, my mum told me as well as my dad that they did not want to obey until they saw the German army coming to Harrachov. They saw motorbikes, they (the Germans) were riding motorcycles, so they got in the last cars. They arrived in Tanvald, my mum was waiting at the station with some luggage, they managed to get on the last train, they left and Tanvald became German in a quarter of an hour. And they took the last train to relatives in Vysoké Mýto. They enabled them to rent a house where I was born.”