Vlasta Vaňoučková

“People gathered around the Sokol organisation building. There were several tens of them, as it was quite a large field. There were flags and we would sing the national anthem. And even there was never a tank in Poděbrady, all of a sudden, there was this tank coming from the old railway station, through Fügner avenue all the way down to Rieger Square. And as they saw the people gathered in front of the Sokol building, they would stop and they would aim at people gathered in the field. And there was a stampede. I was at a corner of Proft and Tyrš Street. Poeple were running towards Žižkov so the tank wouldn't shoot at them. And the man who organised the meeting went towards the tank and he asked this German officer why they came to that place and what their business was. And he said that they would leave in peace if they would take down the Russian flag. So they would take it down and the Germans would turn and in peace, they would go towards the Rieger Square.”

“In 1945, every known German collaborator was arrested. There was this jail in the castle so they would bring them there and they would lock them up. Local men who were in the resistance during the war led them across the square. I was there, being just a girl, to see that, I was just eleven years old. And people, everyone who could, would hit the collaborators with anything they could find.”