Vladislav Kabrda

"Our boss made the lunch. He ordered the lunch then he came in and poisoned it. And this guy, Johann, came to us and told us that the lunch is poisoned. So we went out and bought everything we could. We got some pasta, and all kinds of groceries. We didn’t know what exactly will be poisoned in the lunch. The boss simply opened the boiler and threw whatever it was inside. Then he left and we never saw him since. And this Johann guy saved us all."

"After the end of the war some cars arrived to the town. Some went to the West, some went to the East. We sat in those headed to the East and went home. Here. And just as we arrived home, the hearings with the KGB agents started. We were guilty for coming back from Germany. See, that’s how it used to be before. I still have my ID book where is written ´Came from the Germany.´"

"They used to pull out tons of anchovies from the sea. The head officer, named Harkoma, allowed the fishing boats to sell their fish in the dockside. They cost five rubles for a bucket. That was almost for free, although it was quite a lot of money to them. You would have to collect two buckets of anchovies - they were pretty heavy- and take them home. Then we would salt them and fry them. The women used to make great lunches with them. It is a meat after all. And that’s how we survived. A lot of people came from the Ukraine too...They all were eating the anchovies. It was in the spring, and we had nothing to eat. Only these anchovies saved us. Another way to eat them was to grind them and mix them with some acorns. We would clean and cook them first, and then dry them and shred them. We would make something like breadcrumbs out of them, which we combined with the anchovies to make hamburgers."

"Some people ran away to America. But it wasn’t just like that. It was no easy at all. They put the people on some boat and intended to take them somewhere to ´The new land´ or as they said to ´The land of Franz Joseph.´ and as they were sailing through the North Sea, the people managed to capture the crew and to lock them up. And since there were some smart people among them - one person knew how to sail on the sea, some other person knew the engines - they made it finally to Norway. They have begged for food and some water and some fuel there. Guided by somebody called Kohout they headed to America.”

"We wanted to go to Czechoslovakia so badly. We already had all necessary documents prepared, but then suddenly some lieutenant - I think his name was Volkov - came and told us: ´You will go, but to the other side. You go to Siberia now. They burned all our documents then and all our excitement was gone. That’s how it was. But we all wanted to leave, we really have. We have all the papers ready. He probably was a KGB agent, or else I don’t know."