Jiří Pötzl

"Then the Americans were here and below us, today it's the U Muzikanta pub, it was a pub then too and the Americans were there too. They were sitting in the windows, they had their feet out. We used to go past them and they used to throw us chewing gum, chocolate and as they had these rationed diets, we were there every day. And I remember one time, it was after the war with a friend of mine, before he got displaced, we were sitting on the back hillside by the woods. An American came and sat next to us. We were talking with our hands, with our feet. He pointed to his boots, pulled out a knife and cut them along the ankle, smeared them with dirt, and the next day he came in with brand new boots to show off." - "Like he destroyed them in front of you?" "Yes. And once I remember... We found a gentleman in the bushes, he was wearing a uniform, probably a German soldier. And he said he was hungry, so we brought him a piece of bread and a turnip from home. He thanked us, and the next day he wasn't there anymore, he was probably running away from the war and he had moved on."

"When the third air raid came, we were going to the bunker. Down behind us, next to the viaduct, there was a factory where they made flypaper, and there was a bunker carved into the rock where we used to go. There had already been water down there, when the bombs were being dropped, so the ceiling of the rock was crumbling. The women and men told us that we had to cry or hum so that our eardrums wouldn't burst, they said. We came outside, there was a lot of smell from the bombs. We came to the house and it had already collapsed. All we had were the things we had with us in the bunker. From there we walked to Dřenice, where my grandmother was still living."