Jiřina Sýkorová

"There was a demarcation line where the American army and the Russian army actually met in Nepomuk. And that, even though it was the end of the war and it was all very difficult, it was an amazing moment. And as a kid and all the young people, I remember it so wonderfully because it was a tremendous moment of joy because really both the American general and the Russian general just greeted each other, those armies and those soldiers hugged each other there, so it was really a tremendous release for people that this was the real end of the war for us and that we happened to live in this piece of our country, so we experienced those Americans and those Russians."

"In the year thirty-nine, when we were occupied... our republic by the Germans, I was six years old. I went to first grade in September. And in March was, practically the occupation started, and that's a very sad experience really, but just the experience of a lifetime, that mothers were standing in the street, all the mothers were crying, holding their children's hands. And the fathers were no longer at home, they were already in the bunkers in the Šumava, because you probably know from history, originally we were supposed to defend ourselves. Well, that didn't happen. The Germans just took us over. And as a child, that is, less than six years old, I remember that the feeling was really terrible, because even such a small town and practically the whole republic... the Germans were rolling in on those motorcycles, on those cars, and it was in that March, it was, I think, on the fifteenth of March, when our republic was occupied by those Germans."