Jana Dvořáková

"The lace makers used to meet in my grandmother's kitchen and make bobbins. [Grandmother] sewed gloves too, these little twigs on the top of the gloves. It was a special and special job because it wasn't allowed to be too tight or loose. The gloves were pulled forcefully on the hands, so the threads were not allowed to snap. I remember they were special threads and my grandmother used to soap them. She'd put soap through them to make them shinier and make them stretch nicely through the skin. My mother used to sew gloves, too. My grandfather brought them from Abertam on a cart, the gloves and the liner - it was called a futro. The leather top had to be turned all the way around, and the tips of the fur snapped on. Then it was turned all the way back so the fur coat was inside. The gloves were flattened with wood that looked like pickle tongs. The liner - the futon had to be beautifully straightened there and sewn on at the wrist with little invisible stitches."

"My mother was born in 1933 and she told me that when our liberators [the Soviet army] came in 1945, they were absolutely ignorant and perhaps even illiterate people. My grandmother hid my mother and aunt in the hay or under the covers, in the closets. They hid them in different ways because the soldiers were very rough. Once my grandfather told me that a soldier came to them and had five alarm clocks under his belt. Apparently he had stolen them from the previous houses he had been to. Suddenly one of the alarm clocks started ringing and he pulled a machine gun on Grandpa because he was scared and Grandpa was scared too. He probably thought Grandpa did it on purpose."