Růžena Hanáková

"It was just twelve o'clock and the planes started flying so low that we got scared and we all ran home. Everybody in Senice had shelters dug in their gardens, and whoever had a cellar, the peasants would go into shelters and cellars if an air raid was called. We also had a cellar in our little house, so when it started to hit, mum said: 'Kids, hurry into the cellar!' They started bombing, dropping one bomb by the church and one on the pub, that's where most of them were. They dropped bombs in the garden, and there were a lot of dead soldiers and horses, and they dropped one over three houses a little further on."

"Suddenly the order came to evict the gypsies and gas them. It was a terrible blow. Everyone in Senica was crying and then went to see them off. The Gestapo came and forced them to leave. People went with them all the way to the end of the village, to Vojnice, and a band was playing."

"I saw how pale the teacher was. There was an inspector in our classroom and I think she was waiting to see what I say when he asks where I had been. I wasn't that stupid, I told him I was with my mother at the doctor's. He said, 'Well, since you came in, show us on the map where the German borders stretch,' and I didn't know that. It was the end of the school year, so our school reports were already written, and clearly I didn't have a six. He had the principal called in; he had joined the Germans right as they started coming to Senice and asked the principal: 'What is this? She doesn't even know where the border is.' The headmaster brought my school report, the inspector tore it up, and the headmaster had to bring a second one and write a six on the front. That's how I failed."