Stanislav Rytina

"We arrived in Libeň, the train stopped and they said it was no further. Because at Masaryk station, then it was Hybernská station, the Germans shot a lot of railwaymen. It's not going on and everybody gets off. So the three of us got off. And as we are getting off... it was a nice day, the sun was shining... so we see at the Libeň station, where there were tracks and a platform and a station building, we see that there are, I don't know, twelve, fourteen German women, I mean German women, in that tracks. In summer dresses, little skirts like that, and each of them has swastika on her back. Made by some kind of black paint. They were sweeping there... we got out and walked to the Powder Gate and to the Old Town Square. There we had to go through...it was on the 10th of May, about eleven o'clock, we could see the barricades still there. But they were already taking away some of the cobblestones. There were people there, lots of people. And all of a sudden, man, from that one house, there was an open window on the first floor, maybe second or third floor, we see that there was shooting. There were only a few of those Russians in that Old Town Square, they had machine guns with them, and when the shooting started, at that moment we - and all the people - took cover. Against the wall... And the Russians were still watching, they had machine guns... and about two or three jumps to the house..."

"Even from Klučov and some of the villages, they provided the radio. And the SS men caught some of them there... some escaped... some, just about ten or fifteen were caught and shot in Český Brod in Malichov. One of our extended family was also sent there, his name was Janoušek, he was a professor in Prague at the grammar school in Karlín. When Prague rose up and the barricades were being built, so that he and his family would be safe, he went to his parents with his family to Klučov. Well, this Janoušek went there (note: to guard the radio in Liblice). And that's where the Germans caught him. He came to get to safety, and in the end the poor man paid with his life."

"There was, I would say, like a paramilitary group, the commander was Staff Captain Menšík. And we were sitting there (note: in a local pub) and we were dividing up the duties, into pairs. This pair would be over there, this one over there... And now suddenly... and we heard... At Poříčany they also built a barricade towards Sadská, in front of Třeboradice. They built it there. And suddenly we hear this bang and they (note: the Germans) blew up the barricade with an armoured fist, and in a moment we see German armoured cars driving towards Poříčany. First they stopped on the outskirts of Poříčany and we hear machine gun fire. Because the Germans didn't know what Poříčany was like. If, you know, there was resistance, or what. And when they saw that there was nothing, they drove on, they came to Poříčany and they stormed the pub where we were sitting. Five, six, seven (German) soldiers - and they were watching. We were surprised. And when they saw that we were just sitting and had beer or lemonade in front of us, they closed the door again and left. And then the German convoy went to Klučov and Liblice and then to Prague."