"I saw him twice when he was in the army. Always a truck brought him in, once they shot a heifer, the truck took the heifer back, and once they shot a cow, and the cow was taken back too. Then we walked dad out on the state road - and that was the last time I saw dad. I never saw him again after that. He fell on the fifth of January, and he fell on the Polish side. There was no infirmary on the Polish side, so they took him to an infirmary. He didn't die on the spot, he was wounded, and seven soldiers were wounded with him at the same time, so they took them to Krajna Polana, and those seven, a grenade burst, and those seven were buried in Krajna Polana. And then, when all this was being tied up, only then they transported him and the seven to that Dukla Pass. But the seven who fell were buried there together."
"There were [about 15] Jewish children running away, holding hands, and the Germans on horseback were following them and spurring them on. And we, as we were there with my mother, that she was trimming the beets, so my sister, when she saw the children being driven, she started to run towards the children. My mother was probably terrified because she was shouting at her, 'Zenya, stop, stop!' She didn't stop, but my mother was afraid that the Germans would take my sister with those Jewish children. But in the end my sister came back, or if my mother took her from there, I won't tell you. But the children, that lasted maybe five minutes. And then we learned that they had killed all those children somewhere in front of the village. Not a single one was left, but the Germans were following them like on those horses."
"The Banderites (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) were there before dad was in charge. Dad had a gun at home. If somebody turned it on dad, or if they thought it might have been, they came to us in the evening and they wanted the gun from dad. Dad said he didn't have anything like that. There were four of them at our house and they all beat dad into confessing. He didn't confess, they took him away with them, and my uncle, as he played the flugelhorn, they probably went around those Ukrainian villages as well. And he brought my dad home a week later. I don't know if they wanted to kill him or what they wanted." - "They kept him somewhere for a week?" - "They kept him in a cellar somewhere."
According to the documents, Břetislava Vohralíková was born on 22 August 1937 in the village of Moldava I in Volhynia in the former Polish Republic (now Ukraine). However, her date of birth was allegedly confused by border officials and she was actually born on 29 September 1937. Her father, Vladimír Kikal, fought in the ranks of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps. He was severely wounded by a grenade explosion at the Dukla Pass and died in the infirmary in Krajná Poľana on 5 January 1945. In 1947 the family emigrated to Czechoslovakia and settled in the village of Nedvězí near Olomouc. During collectivisation, Břetislava Kikalová‘s mother was forced to join a unified agricultural cooperative (JZD) and give up her fields. After primary school, Břetislava Vohralíková learned to spin flax in Horní Adršpach. She then worked as a flax spinner in Vrbno pod Pradědem. Later she moved to Nový Malín and from 1958 until 1991 she was employed in Hedva in Šumperk. She never returned to Volhynia because she has no good memories of life in this now Ukrainian region. However, part of her family remained in Volhynia and today two of her cousins live there.
Memorial to the victims of the Second World War in Moldava in Volhynia with the fallen Czechs, where the name of the father Vladimir Kikala (Kykala) is also inscribed
Memorial to the victims of the Second World War in Moldava in Volhynia with the fallen Czechs, where the name of the father Vladimir Kikala (Kykala) is also inscribed
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