Lieutenant Colonel Jan Bohdan

“My name is Jan Bohdan, I was born on 25th January 1921 in Klučárky near Mukachevo. It was the Czechoslovak Republic back then. My father was a small farmer and he had about 1,5 hectare of land. His name was Jan, same as mine, and my mother’s name was Anna. My mother was at home and I had five brothers and sisters. One brother and four sisters. I was the third child. My brother was not in the army. He went to work to Prague and stayed there until the beginning of the War. Then he was arrested and he spent the War as a captive in Germany. Then he came back home.”

“The the heavy artillery prepared and the battle was scheduled to eight o’clock. Five to eight, the sun went up and I remember the sight clearly, it was beautiful. Then it was eight and the Katyusha rockets began to fly from behind us. They were flying above like hot flaming fish, you could see them quite clearly. We were in front of them because the Katyusha launchers, after they had fired, had to move away quickly so that the enemy can’t spot them by the smoke. And we would stand in their way. So the gunfire began and it lasted for 70 minutes.” [Interviewer:] “Did you use any ear protection?” “No, and I didn’t go deaf. And as the fire started, the sun disappeared in the smoke and the shots became a constant batter. It lasted more than an hour. Then it stopped. All went quiet. The Germans didn’t do anything. Our infantry and the tanks started to proceed and we were also about to move, but we couldn’t. We saw German planes coming in large flocks. Bombers and fighter planes. They started bombing us and we were afraid to be hit but we weren’t. And then Soviet planes came out in large flocks. But imagine, they didn’t fight against each other. They just passed by and were flying to bomb the German side.”

“The interrogations started with questions like: why we had come there or who sent us. If we had any connection… to a foreign intelligence agency or something. I didn’t understand: ’I came on my own, I didn’t expect that you were going to arrest me.’ There was nothing I could do, I was in custody for six months. They didn’t beat us, but when you went to the interrogation, nobody was allowed to be in the corridors. We weren’t allowed to see each other. The interrogations usually took place at night. They woke you up and took to the room where the offices were sitting and it looked like a military court. They asked for my name and I told them. They ordered me to stand up and I did and then: ‘In accordance with paragraph 80, we sentence you to three years in the labor camp.’ There was no advocate, I couldn’t even say if I pleaded guilty or not.”

[Interviewer:] “When you worked in the agriculture section, did you get to food?” “We could get to potatoes. If you were on the other side from the guard, there were boxes with potatoes. And when it was safe, I sat down and ate the potatoes raw, And when we were planting the vegetables you could eat some. Then we went to the other side of the river where we cut the grass with scythes. The grass was still fresh and when we chopped it and then picked it with salt. The next day it was a delicious. This is how we feasted on food, eating grass.”