František Švarc

„They called him SS man Kostka. He was Czech, he got married here and had some German relatives so he was enlisted in Abwehr behind the polar circle, I mean Kostka. And he got married there again. He married once here and once in Norway. The war ended, he was there for two more years after the war and he kept guarding the firing position on the battlefield before he was told the war had ended; well, then they deported him back here to our golden Republic where they immediately imprisoned him for being SS man, they broke his hands and legs there, everything and when he got out of the prison, he started to work in a nickel mining company, he did hard, stupid and unhealthy work. Well, this Kostka taught me German. And it was a problem because when I and my wife wanted to go abroad, they only let her go as I was studying with SS man Kostka and (they thought) I would definitely stay there so the cadre officer did not let me go and my wife went there alone.”

“They were riding tanks around here demonstratively so that we could see who the boss was, and in front of the pub where we used to go sometimes for lemonade, cards, and beer, today it is called U Černínů restaurant, and those tanks knocked out a huge hole there when they were turning, it was a hole, it was like a mammoth trap. And when it rained there was water in it – and when a car was coming, we were looking at it and the car would fall in the hole… and it was completely wrecked.”

“My grandfather got a part of a field from the church because he worked as a gravedigger, so he got it instead of a salary. They built a little house on the field and farmed there. Well and then a communist came – he said they would build a road across our land. And the communist pretended they would give us a different property neighbouring ours so that we would not lose out on it. Well, grandmother signed it, and we did as well. We then went to ask them to give us a new land – and the communists said: ‘We already have completely different plans with the land we wanted to give you, so we will not give you anything. Because you still have enough. You have two thousand square meters. And some people have nothing at all. So be glad that we will not take away also those two thousand square metres from you.‘ That is why we got nothing.”