Václav Eliáš

“I was watching the airplanes. I remember the sky was overcast. They were flying very low. I saw a group of them, and then another one, and these black spots on the sky were flying toward us. Then I could see the bombs – in the first moment, you can see the door on the belly of the plane opening, and then the bombs dropping down. You could see it with a naked eye. As soon as they gathered speed, you couldn’t see the bombs anymore. But in the first moment when the plane started bombing, you could see the bombs with a naked eye. The planes were already overhead, and so I sad: ´Back to the workshop, this is bad.´ As soon as I said it, a bomb flew through the street. It bounced from the ground. Sparks were flying from it. It got to a house and exploded. It was at some distance from me. I tried to get inside quickly. But the blast wave was expanding, and it started pressing me inside. Luckily, one Austrian worker grabbed me, because he was smart enough or because he saw it too, since he was standing behind me and I fell into his arms. I was shaken and I hid in the lavatory behind the toilet bowl and I crouched there before I could recover from the shock: I have seen a bomb with my own eyes.”

“I met my father’s friend in Lhota. He pulled me back and said: ´Look. I need to get some work done.´ He gave me some documents, I don’t know their content, but most probably there were some plans and drawings. He asked me to take it to Vlachovo Březí by bike. At that time, I was already doing my vocational training, but still, I did it for him. I received a gun, binoculars and a compass to carry out this task. I also got a map, which nobody could take away from me, because I had to memorize the route. I had to deliver the documents by myself, but I was allowed to take companions with me. At that time, tramps didn’t ride bikes, and Scouting was restricted. But I talked two other guys into keeping me a company. But the problem was that one of them invited another guy to go with us. That man was a petty thief. As we went, he caused some trouble. We got as far as Strakonice, but the policemen were already waiting for us there.”

“The workers (from the central storage facility of Dřevoprav) went to the Square (of the Republic) and Dad joined them. Together with others, they made a mess in the city hall. (Papers, busts ) all flying out of the windows. I came there later and I didn’t know that my father was in there. There were document folders flying out of the court building, and there were fires in the street. It was quite interesting. We were persuading the soldiers and officers from the 35th barracks, which was right by the town square: ´The army is with the people. We don’t know what you are doing here. Put your weapons away.´ But they didn’t do anything. They were not even able to do anything, they were confused and didn’t know what they ought to do. But Prague then stepped in and the StB Police and militia arrived from Prague.”

“A crowd formed, they had a jeep and they set off to liberate the Škoda factory. That was because not all the workers from Škoda marched out. Only those from Doudlevec were out, and they claimed that the other workers were closed inside the production halls and that we therefore needed to go and set them free. We marched toward the factory. When we came there, the protesters pressed against the gate so hard that they broke through and they marched in. When they were overcoming the gate, I noticed my Dad. I told him: ´Come, let’s go have a look inside.´ He replied: ´Fine, let’s go.´ But then I saw that there was Fiala from Litice in a militia uniform holding a rifle. Therefore I said to Dad: ´Look, this guy’s there, let’s get out of here.´ Dad said. ´But I can’t see him.´ He didn’t recognize him. ´But I saw him, let’s go away.´ We just turned and walked back. Nothing happened, we haven’t done anything. We only turned and went back. But he then turned us in.”