Marie Pucharová

“He begged that he had had a new organ built and that he would like to play it. So he went towards the gate and a person from Nedvězí blocked his way. He slapped him several times and [told him] no organ and he crushed his glasses under his foot - he did not see well. And more people were already standing there, they lined up and they had to go to the courtyard in Hedva and everyone were supposed to sign that they were leaving voluntarily. And the priest who could speak Czech perfectly and who served first in Bystré, he had slapped that man as a child during religious education because he must have misbehaved and the man was taking revenge on him. And he was supposed to sign that they were leaving voluntarily and the priest said that he could not sign it because he would lie. And so people from Jedlová had to create a circle around him and the man whipped him there. Soundly, blood was soaking through his shirt. And then, they had to set off the journey walking to hill Balda, Pomezí and to Svitavy and the priest had to walk in the ditch all the time.”

“Our boys were always to and fro - they needed to know what was going on as soon as several people were together. So they came but we already saw that they were summoning people. And they came that uncle Josef would probably take them away. They thought that they would go to Siberia that they would take them away. And because they did not even have a piece of bread at home, just a small heel of bread, mum and aunt baked a loaf of bread, they put it into linen and they carried it down. They were deported to Kropstädt. People from the first transport were sent to East Germany, the next transports were to West Germany and it was completely different for them. They were supported, they could build [houses] but people were not given anything in East Germany. Simply expressed , it was the Russian area.”

“They raped women a lot here. Anna Krejčová spent six hours lying in a spring and six Russians were one by one raping her sister-in-law. She looked terrible - she was unrecognisable. They were our neighbours, we lived across the street. Mr. Krejčí came from Oldříš and he could speak Czech perfectly. He told it to them but they did not take anything and anyone into consideration. They were also accommodated in our house. They drank even Cologne water, they did not care. The main thing was that they were still drunk. There was a house up there, in front of the Cacek´s house, it was already demolished and young women from Jedlová hid there to avoid it. However, someone might have given them away or they might have stalked them and they took the house by storm. Young women were escaping to the forest towards Bořiny but they... they were also unrecognisable. It was horrible, they were like animals, really like animals. You know, all the things we had to see... They were accommodated and they picked where they would come at night. They pulled the trousers down already in the kitchen or the bedroom door and you could see everything - all private parts. We were just children at that time, we were eleven years old and not ashamed. They were accommodated in our house together with one woman. They went to the toilet in the corner behind the wardrobe and they wiped their bottoms with a net curtain. You know, I remember it, those were sad days.”