Adéla Lasáková

"This guy named Kašný was a big farmer. I was working in a beet field and a car pulled up suddenly. That was during the communist era. Two guys got out. One in a leather coat and one casual. They went to Mr Kašný, Jindřich Kašný. He had to go with them. He asked what he had done wrong. They said he'd cut the beet the wrong way, too much waste. That wasn't true. He didn't want to join the coop. So they took him away and he never came back. He had to work in the uranium mines and he died there."

"My uncle was killed in the war. I was a bridesmaid. My cousin has a photo of it. We sang songs. There is a memorial for soldiers killed in WWI in the village. There was a man named Iran. He was an SS man and he gave a speech about the dead soldiers. They sang the song, 'Ich hatt' einen Kameraden'... I can't go on. It was sung for those who were killed."

"Whose grandpa was that?" "Mine. Mum's dad." "What was his name?" "Josef. Josef Flaška." "What happened to him?" "An artillery shell. It was the worst here when the frontline was passing. We were in the cellar and suddenly there was a lot of dust. Grandpa and grandma thought we were on fire, so they ran out of the cellar. The house was intact, but half the barn was gone. Grandma went back to the cellar, but he went to clean his pipe. Then a shell hit the neighbour's house and shrapnels flew through the window. One hit him in the leg. He lay there and he bled to death. The Russians were coming, the Germans were gone, and he died. We were left alone. A single aunt, my grandma and me."