"As far as the resistance is concerned, I lived in Pankrác, where there was already a resistance group, and they put me in it. There were about eight of us and it was led by a lieutenant, a former Czechoslovak soldier. There were Germans in Prague who didn't want to run away and who were still shooting at our people from the windows. Even two of my friends were killed from the window. Then we carried the dead away, we carried them to the gymnasium in Pankrác, we put them in the gymnasium where the dead people were gathered. We were ordered to liquidate the Germans somehow. I was already armed, of course. So it happened to me that somewhere there was a group of about three more Germans who were looking at the barracks, which were half empty, because at that time the inhabitants who were there were always trying to evacuate somewhere during the day. They were looking for friends, relatives and so on, so that they wouldn't be left in the centre of the armed action. I was walking like that when suddenly a group of Germans appeared in front of me, I ran to the cellar to hide, only another German appeared who had a rifle. There was nothing I could do... I was faster. I had to kill a man for the first time, which of course was not very pleasant."
"What happened was that I was called to the head of the architectural firm, who told me that they needed me to take some architectural plans to Vienna. They gave me the drawings and the exact address in Vienna, which was some branch of that office. I went through Prague with the drawings, the carriage was sealed and it was an express train going to Vienna. I handed over the drawings on the spot. Already at that time on the train, which is interesting, I got the idea that the train was stopping at Wilson Station, but it was sealed, and I thought that I could use that in some way. When I got back to Dresden, there was a Polish guy who was a locksmith. So I asked him if he could make me a key to the carriage, which he did. I knew that more drawings would have to be taken to Vienna. The man made me a key, so when about two or three months later they gave me more drawings to go to Vienna, I already had the key ready. My plan was that it would go through Prague via Wilson Station, where it was stationary for a while, so I took advantage of that. I opened the carriage, which was locked, only Germans from Dresden could ride it, so I got out of the carriage."
"I worked in a German factory as a normal worker. The worst thing was that every night the bombing had already started, which was carried out by the English or the Allies, and it was mostly at night. It was coming from Hanover. That's when I started to think that it was bad, that I had to do something to get out of there, because it was dangerous, every moment it was expected that the English would come and that the area around the factory would be bombed. I was helped by chance. When I was hanging sausages and hams and things like that as a worker, I noticed that worms were crawling all over the sausages that were drying there. I suddenly thought it might help me. So somehow I mentioned it somewhere, and suddenly the Gestapo arrived, and of course they came after me. I took advantage of that and said that it was a shame that the products that were being produced here were being sent to the front already spoiled, and how the soldiers would come to it and so on. And the Gestapo arrested the whole management and I was set free."
Anatol Saveljev was born on 30 July 1922 on a ship off the Bulgarian coast during the emigration of his parents and relatives of noble origin from Lithuania. When he was a year old, the family was sent to a collection camp in Moravská Třebová. There, he graduated from the Russian Gymnasium established for refugees from Bolshevism. During the Second World War, Anatol Saveljev was employed in a meat processing factory in Braunschweig, from where he was transferred to an army architectural company. He escaped by deception and hid with a friend in the village of Karolínina Hut‘ in Wallachia. When the uprising broke out in May 1945, he went to Prague and, alongside General Karel Kutlvašr, went through the lists of evicted Germans. Thanks to his perfect Russian, he interpreted into Czech. After the war he studied architecture at the Czech Technical University. At university he took advantage of the possibility of shortened military service. After graduation he worked at the Ministry of Education, where he built school buildings, at the Ministry of Construction and then at the Academy of Sciences. He resisted calls to join the party. He denounced the entry of Warsaw Pact troops but was plagued by fear of being taken to Russia because of his abilities and his Russian name. He celebrated his 100th birthday in 2022, lived in Prague, and continued to travel regularly to Germany to visit his sons who had found a new home there.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
