Januše Straková, roz. Štefanová

“We went down Grébovka towards Vršovické station. There we waited for about an hour, nobody came. So we were returning and already saw men standing on stepladders and up on ladders and tearing down Germans labels or colouring them. Everyone was crying: ‚That is the end of war!‛ So I ran to the third floor shouting at my mum: ‚It is the end of war!‛ Mum said: ‚That is not possible.‛ I replied: ‚Well look out of the window.‛ And when mum saw, what was going on, she put the flags out straight away. At that moment shooting from Londýnská street came, so we were crawling at the ground, as all street windows had already been blasted. And then it started for real, so we went down the covers. I had a small bed removed there, but still I could sleep in it.”

“I remember the terrible raid over Vysočany, when Libeň also got hit. We lived close near Rokytka, in the street near Libeň brewery. And a bomb fell right at the Rokytka stream. Thanks god the last house in the street was not built yet, so there was free space there. We used to play there as kids and near the Rokytka too. Raid on Vysočany was awful, as in the cover, when the bombs were falling, (an electricity went off and we were there in darkness). And I remember there were red flames coming from ventilation shafts. It was probably a brick dust but it looked like flame lights, it was something terrible. And after the raid, when we went out, a bomb fell between Rokytka and the wall behind it. And two human bodies were smeared over the wall. It was awful.”