Jaroslava Mertlová

"Then came the year 1945, when the Germans were retreating and the Russians came to the Czech Republic, to Czechoslovakia at that time. They came to us and I know that we listened to the radio and the reporter said that the Old Town Hall was burning and that the Russians were already on the outskirts of Prague. And the Russians really came to us, everyone welcomed them, cheered, carried drinks because they were on the road for a long time."

"I remember siren sounding at noon. It meant a raid. We experienced the first raid. We were standing by the window and Mom said, 'Look, there are hundreds of planes!' So we looked like this and suddenly we saw... a terrible rumble and there were bubbles coming from those planes, and they were just dropping the bombs. Well, we didn't know that. Mom said, "Children, you'd better get out of that window." And before she could finish her talk, I woke up in the bathroom with my head bleeding and blood running over my face."