Jaromír Karásek

* 1930

Witnesses of local events connected to WWII
15. 3. 1939 - The Nazi occupation of ČSR, 1944 - 1945 - The liberation of Czechoslovakia, 8. 5. 1945 - End of WWII
  • 1
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    The liberators robbed them of their watches

    (audio)
    duration: 00:51
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    "We were still in the shelter. I don't know what else was going on, probably the German raid, so we were hidden. Two Russians stormed in with machine guns, [asking] if there were any Germans. So we [replied] that no. They asked, 'Kolko tchasu?'. So everyone, because our liberators were asking what time it was, pulled out their watches helpfully. Everyone had a pocket watch at the time, the vast majority. And as they drew them out, the Russians said at once, 'Davaj suda', and they were all without watches."

  • 2
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    A bomb fell in front of our house, but it didn't explode

    (audio)
    duration: 00:37
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    "I found out that something like that was going to happen, that it could be a bombing. We left the cards as they were. I ran home, the boys fled, too. I ran to the door, closed it, and at once it was as if someone was throwing stones at it. We later found out that a bomb had fallen on the road in front of our house. It weighed 500 kilos, but didn´t explode. "

  • 3
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    A young man from Hitlerjugend stepped out of the procession and slapped him

    (audio)
    duration: 00:53
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    "There were a lot of German soldiers, members of the SS and the Hitlerjugend. The Hitlerjugend members marched in front of the main station, carrying standards, flags with a swastika. At the time as I was standing there watching it, there was a gentleman wearing a hat. Marching Hitlerjugend - those were fifteen, sixteen-year-old boys. One jumped out of the march line, ran to the gentleman, and slapped him in such a way that the hat fell off."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Liberec, 02.10.2013

    (audio)
    duration: 36:51
    media recorded in project Soutěž Příběhy 20. století
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I was there when Hitler came to Brno

Jaromír Karásek
Jaromír Karásek
photo: Witness´s archive
photo: Witness´s archive
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Jaromír Karásek was born on October 1, 1930 in Hrušovany near Brno, as one of five children. In March 1939, he watched the arrival of Nazi troops in Brno, including the German Chancellor and dictator Adolf Hitler. Jaromír’s older brother František was appointed to forced labour in Genshagen, Germany, and from 1940 to 1945, he sent home, apart from letters, several photographs taken shortly after the city had been bombed. In August 1944, Jaromír witnessed an air raid on Brno. One of the unexploded bombs remained stuck in the ground just in front of their house. He lived through the end of the war and the liberation by the Red Army outside Brno in an underground shelter in nearby Žebětín. At the time of filming (2013), a witness was living in Brno.

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Photos (2)
  • Jaromír and Miloslava Karásek
    Jaromír and Miloslava Karásek
    photo: witness´s archive
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  • Jaromír Karásek
    Jaromír Karásek
    photo: Witness´s archive
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