"In January the front was getting closer and we often saw large groups of airplanes flying in the direction of Łódź. Łódź was a centre of textile production, during the war, some weapon parts were manufactured tehre. Then we saw the whole Łódź in flames. They used flares which lit in the air and illuminated the whole town. The pilots could see it as if it was noon and they bombed it until it was all rubble."
"I have one somewhat strange memory from when I was a child. In the middle of our little village, the Russian mounted a mortar during the liberation of Poland. They placed it there because about half a kilometre from us, by the forest, there was a cottage of Mrs. Graf, where the German soldiers were lodged. They used to set out to commit various savageries and they would shoot at people. The Russians couldn't easily get them there so they placed the mortar in the middle of the village, fired a few rounds and they burned the cottage to the ground. The [Russian] soldiers were ready to catch all the Germans that would run away. Then people would say that the Russians took them to the middle of the field because it was winter, then they had them undress and they shot them all dead."
"When they started crossing the borders during the night, a helicopter hovered over a textile factory near us. They were watching us and checking whether army units were not assembling there. When morning broke, there were only tanks driving around and the helicopter never appeared again."
Vlastimil Svoboda was born on the 24th of June in 1938 in the Polish village of Zelówek in close vicinity to the town of Zelów. His parents were descendants of Czechs who left the country for religious reasons after the Battle of White Mountain in 1620. His father worked as a boilerman in the local textile factory and he was a lay evangelical preacher. The family lived in Zelów. through the WWII, they witnessed fighting between the Germans and Soviets or bombing of Łódź. After the end of war, witness’ parents decied to return to their homeland. At first, they found their new home in Liberec, later, they settled in Dolní Řasnice in the Frýdlant area. Here, Vlastimil Svoboda lived through his childhood and along with other boys, he explored his new home. After finishing the first five grades of basic school, he started to attend the higher grades in Nové Město pod Smrkem and after, he apprenticed as a machinist and then he worked in the TIBA company in Frýdlant until his retirement. In August 1968, he became a witness of the Warsaw Pact armies invasion when a part of an army corps passed through Dolní Řasnice to Frýdlant. In 2021, he lived in Dolní Řasnice.
Recording of witness’ memories was possible due to the support of the Liberec district.
