Marie Popelková

“Indeed I remember that. Around our house there was the main road. It was really terrible. Tanks and cars were driving past. There were soldiers everywhere. It was pretty bad. We were scared. We were hiding in the room so that no one could see us. Daddy´s shop got closed down and he was sent to Ostrava. But I remember that he came back home once, packed something up and I did not know what it was. But later I realised it was money. He sent some cash to a certain doctor to acknowledge he was sick and did not have to go to Ostrava anymore. And then he stayed home with us.“

“On 8th May, 1945 we were at home and as the tanks started to pass by, we took our stuff and went to the cemetary. From the cemetery to the forest and we got all the way to the swimming pool. There was Mr. Štraus, who told us to join them as they had a hide built there. They placed even benches there and his whole family was hiding in. They took us to their cover. Men used to go outside for a smoke and we stayed in with my mummy. My brother was five years older than me; he was nineteen and I was fourteen. Suddenly there was shooting again so we hid inside and no one got hurt. Around half past twelve a huge bang came. Daddy went out to look. I can still see it today: ‚Something happened, something must have happened.‘ And indeed, a bomb fell down. The Russians threw it by accident. The soldier, whose duty was to give signals in places that were already liberated, unfortunately died. And they did not send anyone else. The airplanes were flying over and the pilots saw many people together, so threw bombs down. One fell down right in front of the castle. There was no hole, it created a kind of a pit and the explosion went into the distance. 114 locals from Hrotovice and 34 soldiers fell. The silence in Hrotovice on the next day, that was something... I remember it still clearly the kind of silence. Nothing was happening, but the human silence... No one walked, no one talked, no one worked... That was really bad and the funeral was on Friday.“