Milan Vlček

„To si pamatuju. V devětatřicátým jsem byl ve školce. Učitelka nás všechny vyzvala, abychom se šli podívat, co se děje. A tak jsme viděli, že v Olomouci od Envelopy přijížděli trény vojska německého. Stáli jsme v takovém podchodu dnešního nového soudu, takže jsme viděli. Byli jsme výš, takže jsme viděli, jak přijíždí. A jeli směrem na Ostravu."

“I set out toward Javoříčko. When I was nearing the first building coming from Luká, a machine gun barked out from the direction of Střemeníčko and several bullets whizzed by me. I was walking along the edge of the road, and I had to good sense to jump into the ditch. Shaking with fear I climbed into the concrete pipe under a field access ramp. How long was I there? The sun was almost at its peak, so I estimated it was around noon. The shooting began to cease, with just the occasional shot now and then.”

“I saw the dead bodies of men that I knew. The first was my neighbour, whom I’d warned. When I arrived at the first ruins of a building, I found out that apart from the school, the hotel, and the gamekeeper’s lodge, blackened walls and chimneys were all that remained of the other buildings. It was a terrifying sight, and the uncertainty of whether I would see Mum and Grandma, as my father wasn’t with us. I was the first to come to the village because I couldn’t see or hear anyone else. It wasn’t until a good bit later that they arrived with Dolfy in the pram and joyful embracing began.”

“Mum immediately put on black gossamer as a sign of mourning, and within a week she was summoned to the Gestapo. She came there and the Gestapo officer roared: ‘How dare you? An enemy of the state, and you’re wearing a black veil for him. If you don’t take it off right now, you’ll go where he went.’ Mum came home, she took it off, and she didn’t even wear a black band on her sleeve. Some time later we were tidying up the flat, and we found a leaflet behind one of the wardrobes. She worked out that he had been doing anti-Nazi activities. I don’t know if she met with someone else from the group that distributed the leaflets, but in the end she began distributing them herself.”

“I personally honoured and continue to honour his views. I took an interest in him back when he was in prison. When he was later elected president, his main notion was to inform the whole world that there’s this place called Czechoslovakia here in the middle of Europe and that it’s inhabited by people, not some kind of Neanderthals; and he did this unforced kind of connecting. Someone recently said that he didn’t do anything for the country, that he did things for the world. How could anyone say something like that?”