Libuše Šedinová

“In Vyškov we lived in the hospital, which didn’t have a cellar where we could hide. Vyškov was declared a German city, there’s still a garrison there even today. So Vyškov got pretty blown up. Back in forty-four the Germans gave the order for the square - the displays - to be boarded up. But those last days, when the Germans were to be expelled, when they were to capitulate, the Germans themselves flew over Vyškov and dropped phosphorus bombs, so large parts of Vyškov burned to the ground. We fled from there to hide in a shelter, specifically, into the wine cellar under the parish house. And then came the liberation by the Soviet army. Except what happened was basically looting. We were also affected by it, because they entered the wine cellar, and people started taking wine up in baskets and drinking it, the soldiers that is. And girls, or young ladies, women, were asked to go peel spuds - that is, taters. Well, and various problems arose in consequence. So we formed a chain in that wine cellar, and bottles were broken and wine was poured into the drain...”

“The year forty-eight came, I was attending primary school in Děčín by then, of course, and our teacher came in, during art class, and said: ‘Right, and today we’re going to paint a Pioneer’s badge.’ We each painted a Pioneer’s badge, and then she said: ‘Now write >application< on it.’ We signed the picture, and we were Pioneers. Finito. At that time, because we were connected to the [Catholic] Church, my sister and I were members of the Catholic Youth Union. That was basically a kind of association, you could say that it was a self-education course. There was a Jesuit seminary in Děčín, where they had a faculty of arts. In the 1950s the faculty of arts was dissolved and all the professors were locked up. I knew one of them in person because he used to visit our family, he taught Spanish, Portuguese, Greek. Then he was employed as a pointsman...”