Anna Šaršounová

“Just when we got to [the National] Museum and went on to return home, fire started, there was quite a noise. That was on Wednesday. So we settled down at home and there were bullets flying almost in our windows. It just was not pretty at all. So we relocated to the cellars. Upstairs, there were some Germans living, they were there with us, but they were old, grandma and grandpa. Some people came there and asked who of us is German. And then they took that elderly couple away from the cellar. We had some chairs there, we had a small store with dry goods just next door from the cellar. Sos he gave us some food, some bread, I don’t remember it any more. We were there from Wednesday until Saturday. And meantime, barricades were being built. We had a pram, it got filled with ash and some rubbish and that’s how the pram got up on a barricade. My older brother was helping out on the barricade. Then it happened that someone from the other side of the cellar wall called at us to dig a hole through the wall. My aunt, she was there with us, was worried that it was the last day of our lives, that Germans will jump out of that hole and kill us all. I remember that my brother and that other boy were digging a hole through that cellar wall. I remember that I saw a Czechoslovak flag in that hole, in that crack. Some man had it on his helmet. We thus calmed down, those were Czechs. They tore down a part of the wall, then from the other side, too. Then they carried the wounded on stretchers, they went several times through the cellars, those injured people.”

“We were about to start eating our lunch, we always had our lunch but we did not manage it this time. The bomb fell even before we made the lunch ready. The sirens sounded and my ten-year-old sister ran to the cellar. I told her to wait, that we would have lunch. At that moment, it exploded, it threw me to the ground, with my arms spread, as I had learned in the ballet classes, so I jumped up. I waited for the air to clear up, it was dark there, the dust was settling. I called mom, I asked where Mireček is, and she told me not to worry, she has him in his arms. When I looked around and saw that the seven-month-old Mireček is in her arms, I looked around and saw my five-year-old brother lying on the ground. I yelled at mom that Jara was dead. My older brother came running from work, he climbed to us, there was a heap of rubble in front of the house. He grabbed brother and took him to the bedroom where there was a matrimonial bed. There were bricks, rubble, glass. He laid him on bed there and said that he was alive. So he took him to his arms and took him downstairs. Blinded sister, Irenka, went with other sister which was not injured that much, who only had surface wounds from that rubble. They got up and went downstairs. I ran to a water tap, there was blood flowing down my face. The bomb hit me from the side, I had a large scar on my cheek and on my forehead, I got a tooth knocked out. Blood was flowing down my face. A German soldier came to me and he wanted me to drink some medicine from a spoon. I refused, I did not dare to take anything from him. Mom laid Mireček to the next door flat. I did not see that, they just laid him there. Mom was already without him because it hit him right in his head, it smashed his head, everything flowed out from his head. Mom had scars on her hands, from the sides. Dad came when we already were in front of the house. He yelled that this would drive him crazy when he saw what had happened to Irenka, what had happened to my youngest brother. My five-year-old brother had a bandage on his head for a year because he had a hole in his head.”

“Mom was holding Mireček on her arm and Mrs. Hříbalová came and said: ‘Mr. Martinovská, will you go to the cellar?’ Mom told her: ‘We will wrap up M.. and then we’ll go.’ And at that moment, it exploded. Around 1 pm, a bomb fell in front of our house. It threw me in the air, I jumped up, it hit only my face and my tooth was knocked out. When the dust settled a bit, I yelled: ‘Mom, where is Mireček?’ And mom told me: ‘Don’t worry, I’m holding him.’ Then it all calmed down, all the dust settled. I yelled again: ‘Mom, Jára is dead, he’s lying here on the floor!’ There was a lot of blood flowing from his head. Pepík, our eldest brother crawled to us, he lifted Jára and put him on the bed in the bedroom, which was covered in debris. He tried to take his pulse and he found out that Jára was alive. Meantime, mom walked out along with Irenka who was hit in her face. There was blood all over her face. Mom was still holding Mireček in her arms but unfortunately, a piece of bomb shell hit him in his head. She was running from one to another of us but Mireček was already dead.”

“I then went to the hospital, my face was cut, a tooth knocked out, another cut on my forehead. There were many people so they just stitched up my face and put a piece of plaster on my forehead. Many years after, I was pulling debris out of my face and I still have a lot of shrapnel in my body. Irenka – her eyeballs were totally knocked out and she had many cuts in her face. She was hit from the front, me, it hit me from the side. She was so marvellous! She had normal sight until her 3rd grade so she had different perception of space than the blind. And Jára, he had his head bandaged for a year, he was five then. They said that he wouldn’t manage well at school but he came out just fine.”

“On the 5th of May, the news spread all across Prague that the Americans were coming to liberate us. But we just walked to the Museum and fire started. So we returned home and they were shooting to our windows. So we went to the cellar. On the floor above us, Germans lived. They came down to the cellar as well, those were old people, an old lady and an old gentleman. They brought a radio so we could listen how Prague was calling for help. And then we were in the cellar from Wednesday until Saturday. Suddenly, one day, someone knocked on the wall, that we make holes in the walls. My aunt shouted: ‘Good bye to you, those are Germans, they are going to kill us!’ But, out of sudden, I saw a Czechoslovak flag sticking out of the hole. Czechs came and told us to tear down the walls, that they would transport the wounded there. So a large opening was made and they were transporting the wounded through that block of houses.”