Marie Stárková

"Once, the director was no longer Dr Pošta nor engineer Březina, but Comrade Josef Kalabus, the biggest hard worker in Vítkovice. He invited the masters and technicians to a meeting every morning to keep track of things. Once my master came, he was locked up for six years. I don't know in which concentration camp. We sat across from each other, we had a window there, on the blast furnace, it's not there anymore, the trams run there now. He sat down at the table, put his head in his hands and cried. I said, 'Master, why are you crying?' He said nothing. And I: 'Master, what's wrong with you, what happened?' Nothing. He was the same age as my dad. I went to him, I grabbed him by the shoulders. Nothing. So I sat opposite him. He suddenly straightened up and said: 'Maruška, if your dads knew why they were dying in the concentration camp, not one of them would have let themselves be locked up!'"

“On the thirtieth of April 1945, we were in a shelter at the neighbours', back then it was called a shelter, today it is called a cellar. A German soldier came. He spoke French. He wanted my father to repair a motorcycle, he knew how to do it. So he brought it in, and my dad looked at it and said there was no gas in it. He sent dad to the fire station. He knew they had gas there. He brought it, fixed it, and the soldier said he wanted to wash himself. The lady who lived there brought him a basin. He wanted soap. She also brought a towel. And the neighbour's daughter, who was in her twenties, said, "And isn't he missing toilet water too?" And he understood her. He said he was going to shoot us all. But eventually, it was settled, and he left. That was on the thirtieth of April.”