"My aunt only spoke German to me, not Czech at all. Then I had to learn to speak quickly. And soon we went somewhere to the office to report that I stayed with my aunt. My aunt greeted Heil Hitler. And I said to her, 'Why are you talking so dirty?' At home it was said that it was a dirty greeting, that it was not at all nice, so I was used. And a pleasant clerk wanted to know what I was saying. And she said, 'Oh, nothing.' But he insisted, so she told him I asked why I said Heil Hitler. And he said it was a beautiful greeting and that I had to learn to speak German. He repeated it to me emphatically. That was in the beginning. Then I forgot to speak Czech in a moment."
"Dad, or someone, remembered that there was a long pipe under the embankment by the track and that we could stay there before the Russians finally arrived. It was before Easter Monday. So we went there. Everyone was given a wad of straw so we could lie down. We were there all day. We saw the Russians go, but towards Strahovice, not to us. In the evening we were very tired because we could not sit there, just lie down. The children were small, so we climbed out again. We went back and Mrs. Zajíčková says that people are gathering at the parish, so we went to the rectory. There was a full cellar of people. We lay and slept on potatoes. And then they bombed Chuchelna. When we climbed out in the evening, we only saw fire. Thank God they didn't hit us, but half of Chuchelná was destroyed."
"We cooked anything. They haven't supplied us yet. There was no store there until my mother opened it, but we didn't get anything for almost three months. The potatoes, which were left in the cellar. We cooked compote from rhubarb, but there was nothing to sweeten it with. There was just nothing available. So, we ate potatoes. Then they brought some cans, because UNRA began to supply villages where there was nothing. Something could be cooked from the cans. But at first it was really bad."
Rozálie Zavadilová, née Janíková, was born on June 15, 1933 in Chuchelná in the Hlučín region. Father Alois Janík came from Starý Jičín, trained as a barber and came to Chuchelná to work. Adéla’s mother sewed and had a small grocery store. After the annexation of Hlučín to Nazi Germany in 1938, they closed their shop and later also the barber shop. His father had to work in an ammunition factory, where he became seriously ill. Rozálie experienced the arrival of the war front and the bombing of Chuchelná in 1945. After Easter, the German police evacuated them from the front area. The Janiks went to father’s parents in Janovice. They returned to the ruined village, where supplies did not work. The parents then resumed operation of the grocery store. After February 1948, the Communists confiscated it from them. Rozálie worked most of her life as a worker in a plastics press in Chuchelná. She had three children from two marriages. In 2021 she lived in her parents’ house in Chuchelná.
