Věra Vozáková

"I have a memory of those Jews because several Jewish families lived in Předmostí. They were so business-oriented, so they had shops... And when the war started, they had to wear five-pointed [the witness means six-pointed] yellow stars with 'Jude' written on them. I could not work it out at the time, I kept asking my mother why we didn't have that marking too. And my mother explained that those Jewish citizens had to wear it. And we even had this direct experience. Dad, when he was the leather salesman, was employed by a Jewish company called Polák and Son. And the Polák family perished completely, they had, I think, three children, and they all stayed in Auschwitz. And I know that they had some things hidden with us, but they never retrieved them because they never came back."

"My strongest experience from that time - I was about seven, eight years old - and I was sick at home, so I didn't go to school. Well, one day, it was beautiful, azure blue in the sky, it was 1942-43 or so, and my mum and I were in the kitchen, and suddenly we heard this droning, like a rumbling, and all the people of Předmostí were running out of their houses and we looked up to the sky. There was this silvery glare, and there was a bunch of anti-German (American) planes flying in this sort of squadron, one at the top, and then it tapered off. And it was accompanied by this sort of rumbling and the planes were shining beautifully... so it was an amazing experience. Mummy took me in her arms and carried me out. So we all were watching it and we were all excited and we didn't realise that the planes were going to bomb somewhere. And I witnessed two air raids. In one I think they dropped some bombs in Přerov by the pond, near the hospital."