Jiří Svoboda

“I was standing on the stairs and dad simply went to him and hit him so hard. Dad had tough hands. He hit him and the man fell down from the stairs of the grammar school building. And he ordered them to shoot dad. They all jumped into the car and they were looking around. One of them who had a submachine gun and a helmet on his head led dad to a wall, on the corner where we could see it. And since dad was my dad, my good daddy, well, I grabbed his hand and we were standing there against the wall together. I did not feel anything, like fear or something like that, I simply did not feel anything. I was only looking at the soldier as he was taking aim with the submachine gun, and I knew that it would be finished for us. But by coincidence the soldier was a Slovak. He looked to the left and to the right and he said: ‘You are lucky!’ and he grabbed the submachine gun and he ran behind those soldiers who were leaving, and we were thus only standing there against the wall but we were not executed. It was a very cruel experience, though.”