Mgr. Vladimír Měřínský

„Já jsem prodělal během tatínkovy nepřítomnosti operaci. Vážnou operaci s nohou. Mohl jsem o ni přijít. A pan doktor Bambuch z Vizovic mne operoval a zachránil mě. Tatínek to věděl. A on byl tak šťastný, že mě vidí, tak mě objímal říkal mi : ,Vládíčku.' Já jsem byl šťastný, že tatínka vidím v tom battledresu. On tam přijel v těžkém džípu, v té patnáctce a nás naložili a odvezli nás do toho Týnce, kde jsme byli potom na prázdniny.

„Pamatuji, jak tatínek, to bylo začátkem května, jak se připravovali a potom na nádraží měli připravené ty vagony s tím, co potřebovali a my jsme ho doprovázeli do kasáren a přišli jsme v Lipníku až ke kostelu a tam v parku u kostela tatínek řekl: ,Dál už se mnou nechoďte,snad ta kulka tam není pro mne ulitá.' Tak se to stalo. A tatínek potom odešel do kasáren a my jsme potom přišli na nádraží a viděli jsme ten vlak, jak se rozjížděl a jel směrem na Prahu, Domažlice, Furth im Wald, Brenner, Trento, Milano, Torino do Savigliana, jižně od Turína. Tam měli za úkol střežit tu trať."

"As we were sledging, it was morning about 10 o clock, it was freezing, there was snow and frost and we were watching a freight train arriving at a side track into the Lipník nad Bečvou station. They were boxcars normally used for transporting coal but in these wagons was no coal but people! We couldn´t believe it so we came down from the slope towards the train. There we saw a platform in the middle of the train where the Nazi soldiers had put up a tent and in both directions there were heavy machine-guns. People in those cars were bundled up in blankets, rags, coats. They were prisoners transported from the concentration camp Auschwitz. They walked for a while, then were loaded onto the train and transported in the direction of Germany. When we came closer, they gestured to us to make snowballs and throw them. But then as it was powder snow we threw at least some ice crust lying on the snow. And they kept catching it although it was winter, were crunching it, the snow, because they were thirsty."

It was interesting that when passenger trains were arriving and a passenger train stopped alongside the transport, when people saw it, they started to throw their snacks, bread, rolls so they could make hard lives of these people, many of whom didn´t survive, a little bit easier. And I heard that in the last wagon the transported prisoners were all dead. So, this was the second world war, the terrible time. And I haven´t forgotten this in all my life and it had an influence on how my life was formed and on my relationship to people.

"The next day, on 16th March, when I woke up and curious as I always was, I looked out and over a ridge-like borderline of the Smetana Park, right in front of our windows, there was a huge bunch of smoke above the trees and that was the smoke from the Olomouc synagogue burning. The synagogue was practically new and beautifully decorated. It was its cupola and other parts that were set on fire by the Olomouc Nazi supporters. So called Olomouc Nazis. Then the synagogue had to be torn down by our people, the Czechs. I remember the place very well. I used to walk past it every day with my parents or my mother on the way to town. "