Jan Pollák

"We were long-term participants in the second league. We had a really good and efficient team. And it was solved in such a way that some of the tours were organized through ČSTV. It depended on how many of us had someone we knew where, so that the tour was assigned to us. So we managed to combine those tours with the fact that we ourselves ordered a tour as a themed tour somewhere. And with that we got out there and played volleyball. Otherwise, we wouldn't get out. That's how we got through."

"Many German women and children arrived who were simply fleeing from the advancing Red Army from that side, like from Brno to České Velenice. It was strange to us, why anyway, well, we did not understand it as boys. Parents were silent, you told us, you did not know anything, we didn't say anything, and so on. At that time, food was scarce, it was found in all kinds of ways. Thanks to my grandmother, that she had that shop, so the farmers and whatever they needed certain goods, so it was more or less exchanged. We got eggs and bought maybe five kilos of nails or something like that. My grandmother had a cutlery shop, she sold knives and such kitchen utensils, well, the housekeepers came again, brought some butter, so it was sold like this. Well, that's how we did it."

"Then came the year 1939. Unexpectedly we were informed at school: 'Well, young men, from tomorrow we walk on the right, we have to drive on the right, it's ordered.' We looked at each other to see what was actually going on, but somehow it worked out. During that period, when President Beneš abdicated, Dr. Emil Hácha, a native of Trhové Sviny, took over as president. So, we took it that way. But, what was sad when grandma and mom said, 'So we got food stamps.' These were introduced in 1939. Well, it turned out quite badly, because on the one hand, when we looked at the trimmings, I still remember that, the rolls, the meat cube, the food ration, little sugar, little meat, no butter, it was not good."