Vilém Lasák

"We always collected grenades with the boys, mostly war grenades. We were good at that. There were still trenches, and we had the igniter cord... and we were so happy when it exploded. It was very dangerous, though. One lost his life at the opposite end in Rybniční Street. He was playing with a hand grenade and it exploded in his hand and he was dead. I know of one more. The boy was as old as me. Benek Gerhard of Novodvorská Street. There was a tank there. It was broken but nobody took it away. He found a hand grenade in the tank and went to a friend who was my schoolmate. His name was Pepík Duda. Joseph. He went to his house, called him out and showed him the grenade. There was one more boy from Kobierzyce present. As they were talking, he armed the grenade, it exploded and Duda lost his life. He was dead. Gerhard lost his leg. They amputated his leg. The one from Kobierzyce was just a little bit scarred and went on to live in peace afterwards. But Benek lost his leg."

"I remember my older brothers went to the 'hajot' and brought me along. I went once but never again afterwards. It was 'hajot pimpf'... 'Pimpf, ich melde mich zum Dienst! [Pimpf, I'm reporting for duty!]'... I was meant to reply like that on arriving. That's what it was. - Why didn't you go more than once? You didn't like it? - Nobody forced me to go. Grandma said I shouldn't go there anymore. She wouldn't let me go. - Did your brothers wear any costume when they went to the barracks? - No, no. I don't remember them wearing a costume. There were some older ones and they had costumes. I also vaguely remember them marching. Like when it was a holiday... Yeah. "Hajot - Hitler Youth." Note: Pimpf is Austrian German for "kid" or "spot". Hence, the German sentence can be translated as 'Kid, reporting for duty!' because the term Pimpf in this case can be understood as a military rank.