Ladislav Zošák

“When the Hungarians driven us off, I remember, even being just a little boy that my mother asked them why they had come. That we don't get along with people of Hungarian nationality here. He hit her head with a rifle butt. She fell down and I ran to the barn, took a pitchfork and I wanted to prong that soldier, but my father stopped me.”

“I got a thrashing, because I ran to the hills with other boys and we carried stuff. When he placed a mortar shell on my shoulder, I didn't even know it was a mortar shell. He placed one and then another one on me and said in Russian that approximately 220 yards away was a partisan group. I should have carried it there. So about six of us went there and I thought to myself that if we had encountered Germans on our way, we would get shot right away. When we arrived there, one man said: 'Those are our boys!' He took the mortar shell from me and pointed: 'Look over there.' There were Germans in a trench preparing food. The Russians began shooting at them as they had three mortars. There were also our soldiers and I guess, one was French. So they prepared it and fired the mortars. The cook place as well as Germans were gone.” “Did you directly see it?” “Yes, I did. The firing was horrible. That was the first time I saw what a grenade can do.”