Marie Rychlíková

"A truck full of German soldiers arrived in Cerekvice. All citizens were under curfew. But I was curious and wanted to know what was going on. They stopped at a column near us. There were people on the truck and the soldiers were putting ropes around their necks. I ran out and wanted to take a closer look. And in the house where we were staying with the farmer, they had a fence with a brick base. Above the fence were wooden slats. As I ran out, one of the Germans sprayed it with a machine gun. I could see how it looked through the wood, like when you put your finger through a gingerbread house, it just made holes. Dad ran out, knocked me down, held my head against the baseboard and said to me, 'You're a wild goose, I'll probably beat you!' Dad never hit us, but he just held my head down. Then those people were swinging on that pole when they were hung. Dad told me afterwards that we were alive because of those people, because not one of them betrayed Dad."

"The Wehrmacht came there. A German officer came to the school and told my father that the school was closing. He was surprised at how clear German my dad spoke. He proudly told the German officer that he was a Czech from Žacléř. And that people from Žacléř can usually speak German. The officer left, and when it got dark, suddenly someone knocked at the school and it was the officer again. He handed dad a paper and said, 'These people on the list will be arrested tomorrow, and you're first on the list, teacher. Take what you want, don't look at the pounds, but don't be here in the morning.' The officer then said to dad, 'Your people, the Czechs, gave us the list.' And then he and my mother, with whom they were already very friendly, loaded and packed books from the teacher's library instead of folding their things, and then they took everything to my mother's mother in Nová Paka."