Zdeňka Dvořáčková

"There were two informers in Chotěbor. There were more of them, and many more informers collaborated with the Germans during the war. People said the Germans didn't even need so many Gestapo staff in our town because our own Czech informers were enough. There were quite a few informers in Chotěbor. They wanted to have a good life, they were on good terms with the Germans and told on people who didn't behave according to German regulations. One day, a Jewish lady ran out of her little just to get some water from a street pump. One of the Chotěboř informers was walking by. Running out, she was wearing just a light sweater without the yellow badge on it. The informer stopped her immediately. They knew who the Jews were; he started to ask her where the star was and what she was doing and so on. She apologized, saying she was just running out to get water and not going anywhere. Still, the informer reported it to the Gestapo, they came and took the whole family to the concentration camp and they all died."

"That was already here in Jihlava. I was married by then and we lived in the square below the music school. We didn't know much about it, except that the Soviet airplanes were landing in Prague and tanks had invaded, and then suddenly in Jihlava too. We were living down in the square and suddenly we heard a terrible rumble. We had a single room at my husband's parents' house for seven years! We look out the window to see what's going on, and from Brněnská Street, that old Brněnská Street that leads to the old Brno Bridge, there was a barrel, and now a Russian tank rolled out of the street into the square. That was such a terrible scare! We had already had Dana, she was a little girl, and now the Russian soldiers were coming, nobody knew what was happening, the tanks had gathered in the square. I was home alone; my husband wasn't there, I don't really know what... It was such a confusion of mind that I didn't know what to do."

"We noticed the cellar window was not covered. My granddad ran quickly up there and put a stone and some wood there. And someone started shooting, so he shot the door fast and ran to the cellar. And it all started. There was much noise, rumbling and shooting, and we were thinking, what is going on out there. Is it some kind of a bomb that is going to kill us all or we die by artillery. My granny was pious, she prayed all the time, we just sat there wrapped in blankets as it was rather cold.“

"My parents even managed to get some fat... and my granny got some lard in the country. So we made a hole in the baked poppy-seed cake and put the lard and fat in and sent it as a package. My mother´s schoolmate got a package and on the next day he went to a death march. They emptied a concentration camp, lined them in a queue and led them about hundred kilometres to another place. Meanwhile the weakest and sick ones fell, and anyone falling was shot by the Germans walking on the side. My mother´s mate got the package and ate it before marching, and so did his two friends. Thanks to which they were ok. Him and his mates were saved. When the war was over, his mate came here and started hugging them and said: 'You saved my life. From my family, only I survived. All my relatives, my wife and children died in a concentration camp.‘“

"Naši říkali paní Negelové: ‚Jestli chcete, tak tady Fredyho nechte, protože jedete vojenským autem a budou po vás Rusové střílet. Vy nemusíte dojet, můžete zahynout. A Fredy je hodný kluk, nechte ho tady. A po válce vám ho nějak dopravíme nebo si pro něj přijedete.‘ ‚Ne, když zahynu, tak i můj kluk.‘ Takže strčila Fredyho do auta a odjížděli. Fredy se loučil a říkal: ‚Když si zachráním život, tak vám napíšu.‘ S tím odjel. A víckrát jsme od něj žádný dopis, nic, nedostali.“