Mgr. Doris Bartoníčková

“Then I remember the raids when the men would stand on the long courtyard gallery and watch where and how the raids were going. Then the sirens started blaring, calling the population to the shelter, so I remember we used to go to the basement. One such experience was very strong because grandma and grandpa went somewhere. I don't know where, somewhere behind the Invalidovna, that's where the tram always used to go. I don't know why they left, but they locked me up at home and a raid was announced. The first thing I grabbed was a briefcase and a doll, and I mainly put things for the doll in the briefcase so that the doll would have something [to wear] and not be cold so that she would have clothes. And I snapped the briefcase shut and started banging on the door. And so the neighbours heard me there, opened the door for me, and I found myself in the shelter, where such long steep stairs led. Supposedly, we were in that cellar for three days and three nights. My grandmother and grandfather were still on their way back. And I was also listening to the radio: ‘Come to our aid, come to the radio’s aid!’ I won't forget that. I heard all of that when I was still in that apartment. Authentically – a call for help and shooting at the same time.”

“I remember another similar situation, when someone from the Gestapo comes, as shown in the movies, those guys in those long coats. Again, I remember when they come and are listing the property there. They go around and write everything down and leave, and I say, ‘Grandma if they come, we won’t let them in here. We won't let them come inside.’ What could my grandma say to that? She even wanted to store some things at a neighbour–whose surname was Černá–in her villa. I don't know what she stored there. Thus begins this period when I also had whooping cough. Then it gets a bit blurry– and the Gestapo came for the second time, and they started taking everything out, and my grandmother is standing in the back of the room, and one of them throws a tie and a glove at her. It's scary. It's a terrible scene. The grandmother is standing there miserably, and I know from later that my grandfather was in the hall and that he supposedly even wanted to take a revolver and start shooting. Fortunately, this did not happen. And I was laying in that bed. I have another recollection of that. They were walking by, and I said, ‘You forgot to take that painting on the wall over there.’ They said something, and then after a while, I was saying, ‘Where are you taking that painting? It is ours!’ So that's my memory of it. And the end takes place in the kitchen. There was only a small stove in the kitchen. I don’t remember, maybe there wasn't even a chair. My Grandma is heating sausages on that stove. There are some buckets. Grandma puts a board on top of one of the buckets. I walk around and somehow fall into that bucket. I don't know if it was ashes– so I started to laugh really hard and said, ‘Grandma, why are you crying?’ So that is what happened in Dejvice when the apartment remained completely empty. And then, when my grandmother went to this neighbour’s house for the things she stored there, the nice Czech neighbour said to her, ‘You didn’t store anything here, Mrs Böhmová.’ So even back then, it was about the characters of people.”