Věra Skrbková

"Mom used to go and help her mom, she would always do the cleaning and washing for her. So, once a week, she made a trip to Vysoké. And, until the evening, then it got dark, we were waiting but mom was nowhere to seen. And it was on the 3rd of May, when it started, in Vysoké, the republic had been already declared. People had started gathering at the square. Mom, when she came back, she had the red, white and blue ribbon pinned on her lapel and said: 'I've been to the Republic, they already had a revolution in Vysoké.' Well, we did not know, we waited what would happen next. We heard no other news but, in Vysoké, we thought, it is beautiful there."

"Dad sat at the till and there was in front of him, when he looked out, there was one rather large window. There was a post box next to the window, where people would put the letters which were already stamped. Dad could see outside pretty well. So, it happened to him, that he found out, when he was sorting the mail, that there's a letter to Gestapo. So he remembered where it had come from, who had brought the letter, he noticed somehow, when he was sorting the mail later. When it happened again and again, he found it too disagreeable but now what? Luckily, the post office used a wood stove for heating, there was a wood stove behind the till so dad just took the letter and burned it."

"They wanted to send me to a school for ladies' vocations at least. Meantime, I learned to type, on a typewriter, for that, the two-year ladies' school was great. Besides, we had an excellent teacher who taught us not to listen to everything people say. At that time, people listened to foreign radio already [unclear]. At school, it was safe, the worst thing that could happen would that they would send someone to eavesdrop whether something inappropriate is not told to the pupils. Our class teacher was so careful that he would send someone to stand behind the door [in the hallway], pretending that it was in punishment, and the kids took turns, the next day, it was another one so that they would not miss the classes. And this guard served to ensure that nothing would leak out of the classroom."

The show trial of Marie Zemanová „V určený den, kdy ohlašovali, že bude v Lidových sadech v Liberci souzená Marie Zemanová, tak jsem vyběhla z kanceláře a došla jsem tam včas. Bylo tam už ale naplněno, celá síň. Lidí přišlo hodně. Tak jsem otevřela dveře. Říkám si: ‚Aspoň někoho aby tu viděla známého.‘ A vtom ten, kdo řídí proces, řekl: ‚Dveře se otevírají a objevuje se v nich hnusná tvář Marie Zemanové.‘ To je prosím pozdravení!“

"She went to another miller and asked him for some flour, that she would need it for her son who is a forced labourer in the Reich. And he told her: 'I didn't make him to you!' He just told her off in such a way that she never wanted to set her foot there again. There were all sorts of millers, one of them was an outstanding man. And hearing a nice word was rare back then."