Ladislav Žížala

“They would come to check if the potatoes that had been reported, the harvest... so they simply measured the cellar, measured the height of the potatoes and estimated how many quintals [hundred-kilos - trans.] it was. And then they came to check if the amount dwindled at a rate appropriate to the cattle we fed them to. But that was done by Czechs, not by Germans... so we knew when another inspection was to be made.”

“We had what was called supervised breeding of cattle... supervised breeding of pigs... supervised breeding of hens... which was good money... because an assistant of the company would visit us every month, that was back in the First Republic... and every cow had a birth certificate... it had a chart in the shed, with its name on it, where its milk yield was recorded; fat content was checked, and calves were chosen based on the results of the breeding cow, and those were sold at auctions... it was awfully advantageous.”

“We made our own cream and butter at home because we had a separator... well, and it was sealed during the war... there was a piece of wire stopped up with a seal, leading from the handle to the base, and you weren’t allowed to separate milk at home... but look now, it wasn’t any problem to get the wire loose.”