"Suddenly, the war was over here. And of course I got on the platform again as an accordionist and there was dancing. Moreover, they wanted to continue. I had been playing almost all night and still, still, and already... I was young after all, how old was I? Come on (the year) in 1944— (I was) eleven years old. In addition, I was already falling asleep and they were saying: 'More, more, more, play some more, we're still dancing!' I know that the priest came out of that church and he was surprised that these people were still dancing."
"People were running, everybody. We were in the basement, we were not running. We were in the basement, where we waited. People, the roads were full, but just... It was carts and everything to get them away. But where, they went west. Yet, that was pointless because the Germans overtook them. So then they came back. The main thing was that there was nothing to eat. There were queues everywhere. Because Belgium had the Congo as a colony, which was rich. And suddenly it disappeared, there was nothing to eat, because they didn't have... That Belgium was mainly... well, there was also agriculture, good soil and so on, but not much. Well, now Congo, it did not work, the trade between Congo and Belgium. So the famine once again there was nothing to eat. There were tickets and with those tickets, a person bought food for a whole month and ate it in a day. So there was nothing to eat for 29 days. So we had to steal and beg; we were stealing in the cornfield. I was quite small, so I walked my sister, because I have a sister a year older, and we used to go to steal in the field, and there were watchmen, but they didn't see us, because we were smaller than the grain. So we cut the grain with scissors."
Emil Slepička was born on September 9, 1933 in Genk, Belgium. Both parents were born in Germany, but had Czechoslovak origins; they went to Belgium to work. During the Second World War, the Slepičkas suffered from hunger, which forced them to beg and steal grain in the fields. In 1942, the family moved to France with their two children – Emil and his sister. After the war, Emil Slepička trained as a mechanical locksmith in France and moved to Czechoslovakia with his father in 1950, again for work. After three years, the currency reform came; the family lost all their savings. Emil passed his matriculation exam at the Teplice grammar school and began studying at university, which he did not finish. He entered the army at the Artillery Technical College in Martin and in 1957 became a professional soldier. In the army, he also experienced the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968, with which he did not agree. He died in November 2022.
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!
