Jan Zrník

"The Germans discovered that Major Murzin was injured somewhere in the mountains, but they did not know where. It was in January (19th and 20th – noted by the author). There was a lot of snow. They surrounded the area - Liptál, Jasenná, Polánka, Prlov and Seninka. One day I went to work – they were approaching – when I arrived home in the evening, they were in front of our house. It was dark so they made a camp in the snow; I saw the light and then they went on the next day. There were about two thousand soldiers. They were about ten meters from each other – it was impossible to escape. We were in the centre of the village and there was the commander - SS Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny, it was the Skorzeny who had saved Mussolini in Italy. They wanted to see my documents and asked me why I was not at work. So I told them I had tonsillitis. They also said, 'Here are clothes for the guerrillas.' There was my mother sewing something white. So we said, 'Nein, nein, it is just for us ...' They had the headquarters in our house for one day. First, they had searched everything inside and then the yard."

Interviewer: ´When did you first come into contact with the Resistance?´ J.Z.: "In 1944. First I met captain Petr Buďko, who came to us with five Russian guerilla fighters, and he had his arm bandaged. The Russians had kind of uniforms – leather coats and small rifles. Then I learnt that the rifles had been stolen from some Hungarians and the coats and caps were also Hungarian. It was the first part of Russian guerillas – the soldiers had escaped from captivity and were getting together. Of course, there was one guerilla who misbehaved – he was a disgrace. He executed traitors, among other things. But it was later when Murzin told us that he had been executed because they found out that he had been in Vlasov’s army. He left and joined the guerrillas. Well, he was very aggressive."

"Murzin fought with the Germans when he got well and wanted to look at Plostina, where he had never been. But when they were going there, five of them, they met a Jagdkomando, about 30 German policemen, at the end of Pozděchov. Murzin opened fire with his machine gun. He injured two Germans. But then Gríška, Murzin's helper, wanted to throw a grenade at the Germans but he was shot and the grenade exploded in his hands. So he was instantly dead and Murzin got injured. So there were just four of them and they ran in the deep snow and finally they got to us. And I told him in Russian, 'Alex, it is not good for you!' - 'No,' he replied, 'everything is wrong. We have been running up and down.' They did not tell me they had encountered the Germans. It was three in the morning and they went to our beds and locked the door. Perhaps, they were looking for Murzin. They were very clever – they had gone to the clearings but then into the yard and climbed over the fence and went on. The German reinforcements surrounded the clearings and followed the footprints – they thought the guerrillas were there. But they destroyed the footprints of the guerrillas – they decided to wait until morning. It was in the morning when they found out they were not in the clearings and that they even had not been there at all. They were at our place."