Oldřich Rosůlek

"I remember very well how my father organized the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans. The Kynžvart barracks are imprinted in my memory. The Sudeten Germans were gathered in those barracks. My father led me there by the hand. I was about five or six years old before the expulsion. I remember that the German women had frightened children around them. They had scarves tied to their buns and they were washing clothes on the washboard. These children were very frightened. I wanted to give them some candy. I was a kid myself, so I wanted to play with them. They didn't want to, like they were scared. There was such a great hatred of the Germans. Strong anti-German sentiment."

"The American soldiers took us into the tanks and showed us the parts. They told us what all the tachometers were for and so on. They rode with us around the buildings in Pilsen, in Slovany, in Stromovka. They loaded children and girls under twenty into the jeep. They drove us to Bolevák. It was hot weather then. We bathed there. They always lined us kids up, and when we swam on further, they whistled at us. Mostly they held us in their arms and waved us around in the water. Then they brought us back again. They took everybody to their flats. We each got a little package, a dark case. There were gum, chocolates, frozen raisins and oranges in the compartments. We always brought a treat like that."

"I was alone in the gamekeeper's lodge. I got up early in the morning, about four o'clock, so I turned on the radio. I thought I'd lie down, so I turned on the news. Suddenly I heard an alarm voice saying that Warsaw Pact troops had entered. So, I woke up about five o'clock and I was all sleepy-eyed and I gaped. It was a blow. I took my bike and rode to Pilsen. My bike got lost somewhere later. The hell with it. I was in the square, where it was already a chaos. We talked to the Russian soldiers and were trying to convince them that there was no counter-revolution here. Then I was at the radio station and the town hall, which we defended with bodies so that the officers couldn't enter. The next day we were again at the bonfire in front of the Czech radio station and some women brought us tea and cakes. Then I went home to Druztová, where I collected signatures against the occupation and handed them in at the radio station. It was a blow."

"The first truck with a big five-pointed star drove into the square. It was probably the UNRRA. When the crowds were cheering and my mother had a bouquet of flowers, she was an enthusiastic member of Sokol, and was throwing them at the Americans, suddenly there was a burst of gunfire. Some fanatical German was shooting at people from the top of the church. Everybody ran."