“I saw several neighbours coming down the hill, how they were hiding and approaching and coming up the road, so I withdrew a bit thinking something´s about to happen. And two Russian Katyushas were driving past. Suddenly I saw from the distance that the neighbours understood those were Russians and the world war was ending. So they began to call me, even with Russian it was possible to understand Czech a bit. They went past to the city centre under the chapel, there was a ground-filled pond. There were two ponds on top of each other, the upper and smaller one was filled with ground and then we built volleyball playground there and trained athletics too. There they brought their Katyushas and pointed them to West. At that moment the whole village gathered, people talked about it in many ways and began greeting the Russians.”
“I already attended elementary school in Choceň and at midday we went out, we had time-off around lunch, so we went in front of the town hall in Choceň, when the first mostly motorbikes drove in, but they were always carrying a trailer. Germans were simply arriving to occupy our republic. They accepted us well, there was no issue, just passing by. Some of them even stopped, but I had a certain feeling, as I saw the foreign troops coming in Choceň.”
“Daddy was a mayor at the time, he did it for about fifteen years in the Koldín municipality. One of the Germans came to him immediately, when he arrived to Koldín, and found out he is a mayor. He asked him to immediately gather all weapons the inhabitants got, to bring them and leave with us in our room, where they deposit them without returning. So that was how it happened. I came back from school and was a bit wired by seeing a foreign army arriving. And I saw a number of guns here, some very old and others modern, revolvers and so on so I was wondering, what happened. Daddy explained everything and when I came back the next day, the guns were not there anymore, the German took them all with him.”
Jan Hudousek was born on 25 April, 1926 in a village of Koldín, where his parent had a small farm. The father Karel spent the whole WW1 at the front and during 1923-1938 was a mayor of the village. After German occupation of the republic he was ordered to gather all the villagers ‘guns and the Hudouseks kept them in their living room until the next day. Jan witnessed the arrival of German troops to Choceň, where he visited the elementary school. In the barn he hid a Russian partisan for a single night and also fed him. In May 1945 he saw arrival of Russian soldiers to Koldín and massive transportations of Germans to the western American capture. Even during the war he fell ill with tuberculosis, which he was treated mainly in the sanatorium in Pleš until 1954. Here he met his future wife, Vera Tovarova. Following the wedding he moved to her to Mělník, they have two daughters together. Accidently he became a member of a realisation teach of volleyball in Mělník, a year later he was appointed its deputy chairman and then his chairman. For his work he was awarded a bronze City honour. He worked at the social and health department of the regional national committee placing students following elementary school graduation to trainings or employment. From his position he also fought for senior care home construction in Mělník, Kralupy and Neratovice.
Nováková Kristýna, Hollerová Denisa, Kořenář Martin
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