Alois Bouda

“In November or beginning of December in 1944 I was almost twelve years old; I went to school and I was looking forward to it. But at half past nine we had to go home already – there was an air raid warning. We were running home, when I suddenly heard a terrible bang and it threw me maybe even five meters away. A bomb. And that exploded about three hundred meters away from me. If you ever saw those war films, where the bombings are illustrated, that sound is completely opposite. When the whistle is aimed down, it is behind you already. That´s how whistle bombshells, which fly over your head and explode. It was indeed such hissing sound and a horrible bang. One of the bombshells fell also into our yard. If I had walked app. ten meters higher, we wouldn´t be sitting and speaking here today as I would be dead. We were hidden in a cellar, we had sand sacks all around the cellar window, although, it would not help. I even took a picture of the hole in our yard the bomb had made.”

“I lived at the 1st May Square, in a house on the left side from the hotel Tatra, on the second floor. I was looking out of the window, when I saw a helicopter flying around, and at about half past eleven p.m., suddenly, there were communists and tanks. What was going on? Well, they were taking over our country. So, we didn´t sleep that night, and on the next morning I participated in a demonstration near the University (ed. note: Comenius University). I was only about ten meters away from that Danka, who got shot down.” Interviewer: “Can you describe me the situation, what happened there?” “You know, there were so terribly many people, Russian tanks. And the people acted foolishly. You cannot use shovels against tanks. They provoked the soldiers, what didn´t make sense at all. I guess people do not think in such situation and they act according to their emotions and not common sense, thus it had to end up like this. They dragged out Russians from such an off-road vehicle or jeep and pushed this vehicle into the Danube. I was there back then as well and people kept throwing stones at soldiers. One of them missed and smacked the rock right into my head. I remember there was also a waiter who poured gasoline on some cloth and tried to throw it under the tank to put it on fire. Finally, it ended up by a Russian soldier shooting and killing a girl named Danka. She even has a plaque at that place.”

“On the next day I almost got into trouble. I went to demonstrate on Banskobytrická Street. It is the street near the Presidential Palace, leading around the garden towards the Government Office. We marched that way and shouted slogans like: Dubček, Svoboda, that´s our freedom! That of course, could not change anything, although, as thinking about it now, it really made no sense. Well, and I demonstrated. As we were walking, suddenly there appeared four or five kneeling soldiers with Kalashnikov rifles pointing at us. I heard shooting and quickly ran into the closest door. I wasn´t alone, there were many of us. However, at once a man rushed in and screamed: ʻRun upstairs, because they are coming and shooting into the hallways!ʼ We were running upstairs and as there was a glass wall next to the stairway, all of a sudden it rattled and three bullets perforated the wall next to me. One soldier was shooting from a side road on the stairway. I don´t know what happened later as on the next day we got on a car and ran away.”