Zdeněk Švéda

“The Gestapo came and my grandfather was working on the wood behind the house. Štěpán (Macek) was home and ran from the Gestapo back into the forest. By the end of the war Josef Joklík ran away from work in Most and was hiding in the attic in our home. I was ten, digging up potatoes in the garden and the Gestapo came to interrogate me. I knew that Josef Joklík was hiding there. But I told them that he was working in Most. I said it really loudly so that Josef would hear that I wasn't going to give him away.”

“There were three storms on the 12th of May. One in the afternoon, one at eight in the evening, and the third one at half past ten at night. And that was the first time it hit our house. You wouldn't believe it, a house twenty metres long and it was all on fire. My uncle Josef was in Bušín, and the only people who stayed at home were my uncle František, my grandfather Josef, my mother, and I. They woke me up and told me to run to our neighbours, the Macek family. In that blaze you could't tell anymore what was actually on fire. Štěpán Macek then ran to the stable and managed to only let out one cow with a calf, that was all he could do. My granddad saved some duvets and threw some drawers into the cellar. When I got back from the Macek household it was not possible to go inside the house anymore. Everything was burning. I saw it myself how it got struck by another lightning. Like pouring oil into a fire. I was there with no shoes, dressed only in shorts and a shirt. The next day the Rýznar boys dressed me up.”