Marie Mikulenková

"By then, the concentration camps had been liberated, and these people were walking, they were crowds. And in front of us, right in front of the house where I lived with the family, there was a pontoon bridge built. The Russians built it because there was no other bridge. So it was all happening in front of our house. I saw it all. There was a little Russian, a policeman with a slapper, and he was in charge. And one day, he was breaking into our house because it was closed. We were scared. And the lady I was staying with said, 'You take the little child, you'll have him on your lap when the Russian comes. And I'll have the bigger one on my lap.' And so we waited... because they were raping. He came, introduced himself as Nikolai, and I must say he was polite. And then he would come every day, just like at home. Except the only thing he took from me was a gold fountain pen. That was the only present Daddy gave me under the tree. 'I'll take that as a souvenir.' So that's what he took, that's what I lost. But other than that, I have to say, he was on his best behaviour. But you had to be on guard all the time."

"That was terrible. And especially for me, I was twenty-four. They arrested mainly at night, and I always woke him [my husband Emil Mikulenka] up at night: 'Someone's ringing, someone's ringing!' So he went to look, and then he said, 'There's nobody there.' I forgot to tell you that when they took him to the factory, he got up at four o'clock in the morning and always went to the kitchen to see what the weather was like, he didn't turn on the lights. And there was always a guy standing there, an inside man. And he was watching. He said he saw him, but he left. We had this nice lady, the caretaker, and she always said to me: 'They've been here again, they've asked about Mr Mikulenka again.' 'What did they ask?' 'Who comes to your place, how's your apartment furnished.' And she was good: 'Well, how's their apartment furnished? A rag on the table and a rag under the table.' 'And who comes to them?' 'Well, a married couple with two children come to them. And they take their kids and go for a walk and then come back in the evening.' We were always being watched, I mean, he [husband Emil Mikulenka] was."

"They were scared, but they went for it. He [husband Emil Mikulenka] always said, 'I didn't think I could survive it.' What they experienced... He also said that the worst was his one... a case where they were sent to patrol over the Bay of Biscay, and one flight lasted maybe eight to ten hours. And they were supposed to patrol submarines or convoys. And one time they were sent because there was some important, some submarine. They were given that task. They were told that fighters were coming to help them. And he said that they waited, they waited, and suddenly they saw them. And they said, 'Hooray, our guys are here!' And the gunner said, 'Jesus Christ, it's the Germans! It's not ours!' And they said that was something terrible, the fighting among them. But I think they dropped the bombs, but I don't remember very well, I'd have to read it. But they missed. I lived in England for a while, and we watched the Air Days twice, which were there in September each time. And as we stood there and I looked at the sea... it was like stars, like brilliants, the sea. And I imagined these guys being 5,000 feet up and about to hit some object. That's what they had ordered, over Germany, it was a dock or a station or an airbase or something. So I realised then that it must have been something terrible to hit it precisely."

"You know what was terrible and what I can't... I still think about it now. President Beneš... he was there with them, decorating them and so on. And it was the end of the war, and they wouldn't let them in. Those boys didn't arrive until August, August 13 or 14... August! Because they didn't want them here. They rebelled there, the war was over on the eighth, everybody was excited, let's go home, let's fly home, and suddenly they wouldn't let them in. And so there was a big revolt: 'How come? The English, you won't let us go home?' And they said, 'They don't want you there.' And they said it was something terrible for them. 'They don't want you there.' And indeed, the Russians wouldn't let them, they wouldn't let them. And now I'm still haunted by that thought. That President Beneš was already shut down by then. That he wasn't able to get those - I don't know how many there were because some of them, not many, had already flown over to the Eastern Front. For example, Richard Husmann and Mr. Fajtl had already flown from the East. They flew in normally, right after the war, after the 8th of May. But these ones [from Great Britain] didn't. And that was terrible for them."