Josef Kauler

“In order for them to survive at all, they had to be helped. In Mšena there was a large group of citizens who helped them in various ways. One merchant would even provide them with food every day or two, or three, he would bring them rolls, bread, and other food so they had something to eat… In this way, it was thanks to many of the Mšena inhabitants that these people who were hiding made it to the end of the war without almost any harm, and nobody ever gave them away or told anyone where those caves were. And even though we, young boys, knew it too, the Germans never learnt it from us either.”

“That was very hard for me of course, especially after that era became known as the Prague Spring and we thought that the situation would improve and that the fall of Communists was inevitable. Unfortunately this new era came and it was all over. We resisted for a while, wrote things on all sorts of gates and fences, for the Soviet soldiers to go away. A song was created: “Go home Ivan! Natasha is waiting for you…” The whole nation was singing it. And I even wrote on my car, which obviously wasn’t like those you get nowadays, I wrote on the door: “Lenin, wake up and take those tovarishes of yours with you!” ”