“The Russian soldiers were mostly young boys, eighteen, perhaps twenty years old. The youngsters were very active. There were cars [in Čáslav] that didn’t work any more. The Germans parked them off on the side streets. The Russians got into every car, they had a lot of keys. And they didn’t leave off until they’d repaired it. We said: ‘There’re four or so Germans over there. And they’re coming to get you right now.’ One young Russian said: ‘Nas mnogo.’ They didn’t care one bit, they had courage alright.”
“They took young people to the Reich and put them to work in the heavy industry, making tanks and the like. They had to work there. Some girls were assigned to German families as governesses. My sister was also taken to the Reich, as Germany was called, in 1941. She was assigned to the family of a Reich officer, who had small children. The ‘better’ girls were placed in families, all the rest were sent to the factories.”
“I didn’t find out why they’d arrested them until after the war. We weren’t told why they were [in custody]. The Gestapo came one day, no questions were asked. You’re guilty, you’re not guilty. When something was reported, they went. It wasn’t until after the war that we found out that my parents had listened to overseas [foreign broadcasts - ed.]. If you could, you listened to England, Free Europe [sic]. They were told on by a neighbour - a Czech, a Flagger.”
Božena Klusáková, née Tvrdíková, was born on 6 July 1925 in Čáslav. She came from a poor working-class family. In 1939 she completed a girls‘ primary school and began working at a dairy. Her older sister Jarmila was assigned to forced labour in Germany in the years 1941-1945 - she looked after the children of Reich officer. In June 1943 the witness married Jaroslav Klusák. In July the Gestapo arrested her parents for listening to foreign broadcasts, they were ratted out by a collaborating neighbour. After being locked up in Kutná Hora for two months, the secret police let them go. After the war the witness and her husband moved into the border regions. Jaroslav Klusák worked as a dairyman, as the manager of a dairy in Rynoltice, later in Krásný Dvůr, and finally in Karlovy Vary. His family moved with him each time. They settled down in Karlovy Vary. Božena Klusáková died on May 21st, 2017.
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