Vlastislava Vrbová

“Actually, there were two of them [uncles - ed.], Gustav and Láďa. And suddenly they were summoned to go work in Germany. Gustav went, but Láďa didn’t, and he just disappeared. To begin with he stayed wherever they’d have him, in various houses, and then it got very dangerous [so he joined the partisans - ed.]. I don’t know how many boys there were there at the time, I don’t know, he was about twenty-one, twenty-two years old. Perhaps less than that. He was three, four years older than me. Than I was. So of course they were afraid to stay at home.”

“The Jermak group was practically at least half Russian. Those were Ruskies, young boys who’d escaped from captivity and found their way here to Czechoslovakia. I don’t know what it was called at the time because Slovakia wasn’t part of us any more. [Q: The Protectorate.] The Slovaks were independent during the war, then they rejoined, and now they’re independent again. Wait, what was I saying... [Q: How you helped them. How did you help them?] [Sister: You brought them food, that was your main activity.] Yeah. So they were mostly Ruskies.”