Mgr. Josef Kavka

"The so-called national guests, which were German families with all their possessions loaded up on wagons pulled by one or two pairs of oxen or horses, came to Kounov from Šedivin. Well, there was also a Lanz Bulldog tractor with them, a single cylinder, I remember it as a rarity. There were about twelve covered wagons, I estimate. They were originally from somewhere in the eastern regions, now I don't know if it was from the region of Silesia, or even from the region of Královce, Königsberg, Germany. But the important thing was that they fled from the Red Army to the west and were accommodated for about five days in Rozkoš, in a pub. It is no longer there as a water took her away. Nevertheless, the protectorate authorities had the task of taking care of these people. This means that the mayor of the village of Kounov was ordered to have several wheelbarrows of straw delivered to the hall in that pub. And those families lived there, about 12 or 15 families. Another duty was that the landlady had to arrange cooking for them all; and secondly, the water was boiled so that everyone, the whole family, could bathe, do their laundry, and so on."

"1948. I experienced that in Broumov. I remember that sometime in 1948, in February, sometime around February 28, all the employees of the Broumov factories, that means that mainly the textile workers were there, but not only this, but all the others came organized in crowds, in a procession to the main square Broumov. The shops were closed and other employees were also supposed to come to that square and they did. Well, what did it look like? Mainly officials of the KSČ and ROH spoke there, and especially, and I remember that, also Comrade Pytlík from the regional committee of the KSČ from Hradec Králové. And again, everyone spoke in the sense that they supported the so-called Victory February in our republic and then everyone, or the staff from those races, all shouted hurray and glory. I was there too, but I was like the others, from that small business, so I was on the sidewalk. Those people on the sidewalks, they were mostly silent and looked either sullenly or carefully, while the majority who were grouped in that area of the square were all shouting in agreement with the politics in Prague."