Roman Rentka

“We knew that Heydrich was shot dead in Prague. Czechoslovakia gained a great popularity in the West because we liquidated a Nazi protector. It was such a kind of feeling that we did something, that we didn't surrender. There remained forces that still fought against the Germans. I remember that there was a burial when I was in the cinema – it was shown on the news in 1942, it was when we were in the Army – and there was: 'Half a million French people accompanied the hero Heydrich who was assassinated.' But when there were no Germans in the cinema, people clapped their hands. And people rose in England, the English rose and clapped their hands that there was some kind of resistance in Czechoslovakia.”

“I was introduced to their servant: 'This is our servant.' He greeted in German, a group captain. He said hello and reported in German. I told him: 'I don't understand fucking German.' I told him in Czech that I didn't understand. He replied: 'You can speak English.' His English was perfect, well, better than mine. ... They had such blue uniforms – boiler suits and they had a yellow square on their backs because they were captives. He left the camp in the morning, he knew where to go. He served there till five o'clock in the evening. He was on his way back to the camp at six. He didn't escape, why he would. I spoke to him: 'Hitler kaput. Hitler ist Schweine.' ('Hitler is dead, Hitler is a swine.') He knew the war was basically over.”

“Those were colonies, there were Italians there. The houses were built by a Miners' Society because it was the only one in the South of France that was large enough and that it reached as far as Marseilles. And Marseilles is the second city of France. At least it used to be, it is not any more these days because I know that there are about three million inhabitants in Lyon. So on the route Lyon – Marseilles. Well, they simply lived there, they got a large flat of about three-room size with a little garden. My father lived well in there. But there were many Poles and Yugoslavs there and we were regarded as Yugoslavs or 'sale Polonaise, 'dirty Poles. They had a bad reputation there. When you got somewhere, even as a small child to the cinema and when you did something, then you were a 'sale Polonaise,' a Polish swine. They weren't loved by the French very much but we were quite visible there. I have no idea why. Because there were fewer of us, so that was probably why. And we actually started growing up there.”

“I told myself that I didn't wish anything like that (the war) came back again. Not for myself. You are growing old, you are retiring. But so that the young didn't get to know it, that's what matters. You come to the conclusion that war is useless. Why is it being done, though? Can it not be solved in another way? Why should you waste lives of innocent people? No matter which aspect you consider, you have wasted your life. No soldier, no matter a Russian one, an English or a German one, none has got any profit from war.”

“There was an awful confusion everywhere after the war. People were coming back from concentration camps. I came to Paris in June 1945 – many women's hairs were cut close. And I said to myself: 'Is it some kind of a new fashion?' Every woman dating a German had her hair immediately cut close. They shaved their heads with razors. There was no possibility to imprison people because prisons were full of Germans. It was... you cannot say mess... such glory, happiness and a disgrace of some people at the same time.”

“Regina is a name there, it is a town. We waited there for arranging the last bits and pieces for being let to Svoboda's Army to the Eastern Front. There was a change that there would be no Eastern Front. We should go to England. So we left for England and we came as soldiers already. We had to take off our French uniforms in Regina. And there had already been a group of Czechoslovaks who partially served in the Slovak Army. The second part served in the Protectorate Military, the Czech Military during the Protectorate times (the National Military). But they were Czechs. We had such kind of funny feelings. They fought against us and those in that with us. So we had simply those funny feelings. So they explained that to us. Those were people who surrendered, so to say, who deserted and surrendered to the Allies, to the Americans. Then he came (Mayor Brůha), they recruited them and they got British uniforms like we had. And we went by ship to Liverpool.”