"There were school desks brought over from the some school, the panel sat separately, and we answered from our desks. It was in the basement at Kounicova. I guess it was just a formality. They didn't... they didn't examine us too thoroughly. We all passed the exams back then."
"That was in Cologne. We were with the Technical Assistance and worked with the waterworks mostly, as they blocked up whole sections of the city. We dug a pit for the pipes and the waterworks employees plugged the sections so the water wouldn't run out. We were fortunate enough to arrive in Cologne after the bombing, so we didn't actually experience much massive bombing there. Every now and then a bomb hit. Actually, we didn't witness any bombing in Cologne afterwards."
"The word got out in Slovakia that the Hungarians were taking over Slovakia, so we ran away. The great experience I have is that we took the fast train from Banská Bystrica to Prague and Plzeň, and when we arrived in Žilina, the train stopped and we saw from the window that the station was full. It was like Wenceslas Square, just crowded with people. When the train started moving, everybody was shouting, 'Long live Prague!' I still get chills down my spine. That was all the Czechs who were going back, who were still there. The train actually started in Banská Bystrica and it was just packed."
Josef Straka was born in Myjava, Slovakia on 2 November 1925. His father worked in bridge construction. Hence, the family moved to Plzeň, Jindřichův Hradec, Pastviny in Orlické Mountains and back to Banská Bystrica where they lived shortly before the war burst out. From there, the mother and children fled to her grandmother in Chudenice near Klatovy in Bohemia. He experienced the Second World War in Brno. At age seventeen he was deployed together with other high school classmates with the Technical Emergency Service that reported to the riot police in Cologne. He returned to Brno after six months. He describes gradiatomg in a shelter because the city centre was being bombed. After his military service, he was sent on a long-term military exercise as a builder and stayed with the military builders. In the 1950s he built firing positions for air defence around Brno. He retired in the lieutenant colonel rank. Josef Straka has two daughters; his wife died eight years ago. As of 2025, he still lives in Brno and is in excellent condition even at 100 years of age.
