General (ret.) Jaroslav Procházka

"Our main ally was the Soviet Union at that time and our relationship toward them was very complicated. On one hand there were the soldiers with the red star on their hats which reminded us of the concentration camp. But what we said was that it´s not these poor soldier´s fault. We can´t blame them for being locked in camps. We saw them fight bravely and they always treated us good."

"I´m catholic. My mom believed in God and so do I. I believed that everything will be fine. When we were in prison we used to make these balls out of the bread dough or chessmen. Or we put them on the string pretending it was the chaplet. Those were our prayers."

"Buzuluk, that’s a Urals plain where is continental climate. The Temperatures were as high as 45 degrees during the day and during the night was cold. We couldn’t get used these hot days that’s why Lt. Svoboda has ordered some exercise changes. We had to get up very early in the morning - at about 4am - then we worked out until 10am and after that we were supposed to be sleeping, but we could not fall asleep in such heat. The next work out was from 6pm. I couldn’t put up with it, because my body was weakened from the concentration camp, but a young body can suffer anything..."

"The hearing could´t be complete without the face slaps, of course. A lot of violence has been used on me. Although I was lucky, because this guy who held the hearing in my case, started probably feel sorry for me, so we were solving several math problems during the questioning. Then they gave me some protocol to sign. I have noticed, that during the hearings there always have been lots pins on the table. I figured that they were used to get the confession from people. Fortunately I wasn´t among them."