Jan Pils

„Pamatuju si, že podle nějakých zákonů jsme museli chodit do německé školy. Maminka, to bylo podle dokumentu 6. září 1943 – až v roce 1943. Šli jsme se rozloučit do školy v Domoradicích. Pak učitel Velek říkal: ,Paní Pilsová, pojďte, nebudeme stát mezi dveřmi,‘ a už nás do třídy nepustil. Na chodbě mamince řekl: ,Paní Pilsová, nemusí to být navěky.‘ A tohle už jsem vnímal i já. Říkal, nemusí to být navěky. ,Když se rozhlídnete, tak ony se poměry už mění.‘ Měl na mysli Stalingrad a události v Africe. Tam byly taky události v neprospěch Německa. Takže s těmi slovy: 'Paní Pilsová, není to napořád', jsme šli do školy v Rájově.“

„My, jako děti, jsme z protektorátu do Krumlova mohli velice jednoduše – podlezli jsme závory. Zpočátku byly dvoje, jedna závora protektorátní, ta byla u hostince Svatá trojice. Pak jsme doběhli k německé závoře, ta byla u Cibulků. Tu jsme taky podlezli a jako děti jsme se mohli pohybovat, jak jsme chtěli. Horší to měli dospělí. Ti potřebovali pasy. Ty bylo zpočátku složité obdržet. Hodně Čechů z Domoradic pracovalo v Krumlově, takže ty pasy byly k dostání snáze. Já jsem v Krumlově u babičky zažil rok 1940, 1941. To jsem ještě nebyl povinen školní docházkou, takže doba v Krumlově byla už taková ovlivněná nacismem. S babičkou už jsme nemluvili česky, ale německy.“

"We arrived in Budějovice. I hated the train, so did my sister. And now they called us and put them in front of the table like this. My father said, 'Look, you stand in front of me and when I pinch you in the ass, you start crying.' I cried almost before. At first, the conversation was so normal calm - gracious lady, dear sir. And then it rumbled and my father pinched me. I don't know how they came up with such a clever trick. So I started crying, my father knew my sister would join. And it was not possible to continue persuasion. I have seven challenges at my disposal: Come to Budějovice on a certain day. Our parents were always able to influence it in some way that we went to Budějovice only once."

"I experienced the liberation very intensely. People were running along the Budějice-Krumlov road, an awful lot. And one fine day, somewhere in the distance, someone shouted, 'The Russians are coming!' And when it arrived, the Russians are coming, so I was with my grandparents. They lived on the left side of the road, we, Dad and Mom, and we lived on the right. Well, these already exhausted people already still managed to squeeze the best out of themselves. And those were scenes that are a bit imitated sometimes somewhere in a movie. It was dramatic. I remember a carriage, it was a military car pulled by horses and, a coachman. The horses were in a good shape and a prisoner wanted to hang on the car who had his leg in plaster. The coachman beat the horse and the poor man who wanted to hang himself. It was out of the question for me to get into the darkness across the road. So we agreed that I would sleep with my grandmother. A dramatic scene. The next day I woke up, the road was absolutely calm, no trace of any human being. But the sewers were full."

"I don't remember much about escaping from Krumlov, maybe I was three and a half years old. But I have an image in front of me where a group of people were sitting in an attic room and I could smell a strong arome. I would recognize the smell even now, the one of unwashed bodies. That was the only memory. I know what my mother and father said. The sad thing was that more Germans were fleeing from Nazism, from Hitler - they were afraid of him. They were of a different political belief. And when the Germans of a different thinking were fleeing from Krumlov, they sent them back to the Germans´ hands in Budějovice.”