Josef Tvrzník

"In 1945 our Czech boys took it down (the statue of knight Rüdiger at the Upper square in Jablonec nad Nisou – editor` s note). As during the war and before that he was always a knight, who was against violence. And he was encouraging Germans not to let themselves be raped by the Czechs! That was the gro of it! There was always some… some kind of organisation like NSDAP and all those parties they had, they always focused on the Rüdiger statue. It was all the same: ,Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil.‘ All the swastikas, fanatised people, mass of manipulated folks screaming… And all those torches! When I remember the statue, I always remember the issues around it, always some celebrations. It was a symbol of theirs. As I said, it was a symbol of no humiliation nor oppression! That was the idea behind it. For those, who agreed and who (now – editor` s note) fight, it was a beautiful statue… I say of course, it was a beautiful statue. But now it is fifteen years since the end of war (in May, 2016 it was 71 years – editor` s note) and we were not able instead of the statue… those Czech boys, we familiar boys took the Rüdiger down… And we Czechs in Jabloncec were not able to do anything properly Czech in fifteen years. It was… the idea… was terrible for me. You know I remember all those things… well I do not have a good feeling about it. Sometimes I tell myself that people are unteachable. You know why? Look at those parties in Slovakia; just very similar to those henlein folks with torches!"

"With children, who we normally went to during the first republic… so we knew each other with the German boys. We were flying kites together, went up to Jungen-Spielplatz (todays Žižkův vrch in Jablonec nad Nisou – editor`s note). We lived normally together. I could not speak German, so I used Czech and they understood. We just did. But then the German army marched in and they had to join Hitlerjugend. And they properly manipulated them in Hitlerjugend. At that moment I became their worst enemy. And where we met each other, I was beaten, spat on and kicked around. They wore small knives and got German belts. It was amazing how they equipped them. They also told them, it will be so and so and Hitler wants it that way and it had to be like that. Not all of them agreed and it was not easy. They taught them hate us. Those ideas of theirs – ein Reich, ein Volk, ein Führer."