Milan Ptáček

"Mummy got the approval that we could come. As far as I remember, it was seven kilometres from Tichov to [Valašské] Klobouky and maybe eight kilometres to the station. Mum used to carry us on her back to the station at one o'clock at night when we were little kids. And we went to Bylnice and down to Slovakia. And many times we got to Leopoldov and they didn't even show him to us. There was a waiting room in front of the prison where we waited to be called, and twice they told us we couldn't see him. So we went back again. So when we did see him, about six months later, they showed him to us. It was behind bars, behind glass. There was just this long hole in the glass. We stood on the outside and peeked in. Two guards next to him and he was chained to this iron ball around his waist. We could talk to him, but we were always corrected when my mother asked a question or he asked how his friend was. The Slovak guards always told him, 'Simulenko, talk about family matters'."

"They lured part of the partisan group onto the bus and wanted to transport them, but my father didn't believe them. He said, 'When you get to Austria, write me a ticket and I'll know you're there.' Milada used to bring him some snacks in the mountains when the goats were grazing. In this way he was lured to Tanečnice, where he was supposed to be the last one to be transported by motorbike, but it did not happen. He was brought to the Hradiště, to the Grand Hotel, where he was interrogated for two hours at table number six. He had a small gun with him. There were machine guns pointed at him from two corners and he was about to surrender. He didn't surrender for two hours. Later he said he should have shot himself if he had known what was coming. He didn't do anything, he just distrubur´ted the leaflet. That's practically how it started."