"They were choosing people for the transport. The captain came to me and told me to sign up. So I signed up. They took us to the airport, there were about eighty of us. There we had to fill the holes that were there after the bombing. I was assigned this dirt road and worked on a ditch there. I was already far from them. The captain came and said, 'Don’t think about running away, the airport is guarded and they'll shoot you right away.' Where we’d go work, about five hundred meters away from there used to be a farm, and there was some beets. Somebody found out, so they would go for the beet there. Once we went there, a man stood next to me and then he jumped there. Well, he was done for. He was shot there. They left everyone they shot there. I don't know what they did to them then. But they would always shoot someone and we had to move on. I don't know what happened to them after. It was a terrible time. Planes would fly over the airport and they always shot or injured someone. They flew right above the ground."
"I was among the people selected to the transport. As we were transported there, we were informed, that in the goal destination, we are going to be shot. We traveled through forests, villages. We rested in a circle enclosed by the guards, forcing us to stay together. In the forest or on a meadow, we had to keep close to each other to remain visible. As we approached the forest, they told as that we are allowed to leave and start working for the farmers, if we want. But who had the strength to do that? We barely walked. An officer came and said in two or three languages, that the war is over. Everyone is allowed to go where they wish. We didn't know whether that's true. Suddenly, al the SSs disappeared. We haven't see the officer. What now? We remained sitting there. Suddenly a man approached me, he was from Uherske Hradiste. We discussed where to go. Covered in lice, where could we go? We started to walk towards east. I said, we had to go east, because I remember the position of sun on the east at home. So we had to go there."
"We had to undress in that concentration camp and go to the shower. We went then, they gave us clothes. They didn't measure, someone had small ones, someone big ones, so we exchanged them. There were many people. Germans, Hungarians, Slovaks, Czechs ... There were an awful lot of foreign languages, so we didn't agree. We were in such a camp. We shared a bed, one mattress above the other. They put us in a long room, without windows, only with vents. We were only allowed to go out on appeal. We all had to get on board and they called for numbers. Who wasn't there, we had to wait for him to show up. When he showed up, he was shot. Before us to know we shouldn't do it. Then everyone got a piece of bread. That was for once. And then soup, some potatoes in it. That was all. I was young, so I put up with it a bit, because I was still going to scratch potatoes in the kitchen and we always got something there. But those who did not work in the kitchen became terribly weak. The appeal was uphill, and when someone couldn't walk, he was "helped" with batons. When he didn't get up, he was shot. And it had a terrible effect on us, I've never seen it, such inhumane treatment. "
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Jaroslav Vašek was born on September 26, 1924 in the village of Prostřední Bečva in Wallachia. He comes from a poor family supported by a small farm. In the autumn of 1944, he moved around the village without documents. At that time, a Gestapo raid was being carried out in the area against the guerrillas hiding in the surrounding Beskydy forests and the locals who were helping them. Jaroslav was arrested. He was first imprisoned in Brno and then transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp because he failed to prove that he was not involved in helping the guerrillas. In the concentration camp, he witnessed the beating or shooting of a number of fellow prisoners. After a while, he was engaged in construction work at a nearby airport and then embarked on a death march. Of the eighty deported prisoners, fifty died of exhaustion or were killed. During the march, the prisoner received word that the war was over. The guards disappeared and Jaroslav and another Czech went on foot to Czech territory. After a few days, they reached Volar, where they were taken over by American soldiers. After the war, he trained as a carpenter. He got married and built a house in his native Prostřední Bečva. He worked in the building commission at the local national committee and was responsible for the creation of a number of buildings. Jaroslav Vašek passed away on July, the 13th, 2023.
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!
