Antonín Procházka

"Suddenly uniformed Germans with guns and a machine-gun ran out from out of the gardens behind the school. That was at the time the Vlasovites had chased the SS out of Ruzyně. We later found out that they had fled this way, because they were convinced they cannot pass through the forests to Kladno, that there were already partisans in the forests. They wanted to go round this way towards Zlonice and reach the Americans to the west. That's what we found out later on at the village hall from the chief of SS. Some two thousand people, one thousand soldiers, pulled up to the village. They lodged here, the 'national guests' were in their element, they immediately started protesting that they were forbidden to go outside. Their commander stayed in our house, as it was also the village hall. He rode up on a big white horse. My father told me they were interrogated. The secretary knew good German, so he explained to the SS man, why it was recommended the Germans do not leave their lodgings. A lot of people in the village had been soldiers during the First World War. They commanded great respect from their fellow citizens, and they said: 'Please, don't do anything stupid! War is terrible when something like that happens.' The German was an intelligent man, one you could reason with, he calmed the situation down."