Božena Škrabalová

"In Čachnov during the war, it was known that the retreating front we were following would follow the Františka state road. And it was within range, downhill. So all the people in the village dug bunkers in the forest. We also had our bunker, where we would hide from the retreating front. It didn't happen, we didn't need a bunker. But we saw this - it was the Americans or the Russians, we didn't see what kind of planes it was, and we saw how the retreating army was decimated. They started bombing them. And we saw the horses, wagons, tanks from that road coming down the hill as it exploded. We had it as a theatre, we saw it completely. But we were ready to escape to the forest. Fortunately, it turned out that they bombed it and flew there. But a Czech man is a Czech man. After this incident, people run there and began to gather supplies. The youth started collecting weapons and ammunition, and we played with it in the woods by pulling bullets at the patrons and firing it in the woods. My brother had grenades, revolvers. I don't know where it went then. But because it all lay there, people gathered food, spices, alcohol there, they just went there like a fair. "

"Then, of course, the Russians came, they didn't always behave the way they said. They thought they were the winners and they are allowed to do everything. Not that I condemned it, they were after terrible experiences, weren't they? They were looking for watches, that was something for them. They chased the girls [to rape them], which was worse. They entered my uncle's house by the forest. And one such drunk soldier climbed into the house and wanted to take something. But he was probably looking for a watch. And my uncle caught him there, he came home unexpectedly. The Russian beat him up so badly, he beat him terribly that he was completely covered in bruises, bluish-black. And when it was reported, the soldier was shot. No court. Because he didn't behave the way he should. "

"We sat in the evening and someone was knocking on the window. So the parents went to open and - the partisans. And now the dilemma. Aren't they provocateurs? Should we give them the bread? What if it's just a costume? It was a terrible hesitation, but of course the bread was given to them, and when we knew they had settled there, there was a forest hut in the woods on the road to Karlštejn (there is such a chateau) where there was hay for the game. The partisans slept there. Dad and neighbours (when they already knew where they were) brought them food there at night. "