Marie Suchánková

“About fourteen days before the end of the war, we had to free the town hall to the district governor of Uherské Hradiště. I believe his name was Dr. Fajke. He was German. Along with others he was running to escape the front. They moved from Hradiště to us and stayed in our town hall for more than a week. When we came to the town hall after the war, we found an unimaginable havoc in the mayor's office. The ground was full of broken glass. Everywhere laid small eagles torn off their uniforms. I've never seen such a chaos. We were all employees there and we started cleaning it up. And the secretary Lablena said, 'Where did I just put that picture of President Benes?' We finally found it in our frame in the meeting room. But it was covered with Hitler´s picture all throughout the war.”

"Daddy came at three o'clock in the morning and laid down on the bed in the kitchen and said, 'So I signed it, because they told me it might happen that Jarek wouldn't even graduate.' Back then everything was paid for and the school was a burden for our parents. And they had to pay the costs of living in Vsetin monthly. And now it should all be wasted? That was the first time I saw Dad cry. His tears were flowing. We haven´t slept anymore. My dad had always done everything honestly. When we farmed ourselves, they gave us a different field each year. That meant clearing the field, picking stones to allow anything growing. And next year we had to do the same again. That way they tormented people to join the agricultural cooperative.”

“Their bodies [American pilots] were put in the morgue at the cemetery. And we as kids were looking in there later in the evening. One was black, the other one white. They were lying there on the autopsy tables. And we peered, put each other up on our shoulders. I also participated. Our boys then flew all the way to America [the field where the bomber landed]. And our neighbour, Jenda Krčmář, took pictures and we then brought it up together.”