Vratislav Šeps

* 1933

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    Her father’s return from mobilisation

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    délka: 00:49
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    “I remember when we had the mobilisation here before Munich [the Munich Agreement - trans.] and our soldiers were stationed here in those border forts. My father was there as well, I remember - I woke up in the night, I used to sleep right above this room, we had our bedroom there, and I went downstairs to see what was going on. My father sat here with his gun, and he was crying because he’d been forced to leave the border region.”

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    Stew for captives

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    “There was snow in February 1945. There was a pub in Zlámaniny called Springer’s, it was owned by Mrs Springer. There was a long building standing by the road, it’s still there and someone uses it as a holiday home now, right by the road, and there used to be a barn next to it, and they kept French captives there. One man cooked some potato stew, and me and my friend Jirka Stuchlík took it to them on a sledge. The Germans had their fill first, and then hopefully some of it was left for the Frenchmen.”

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    Cannons trained on Nová Paka

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    “When the Germans came, they dug in cannons pointing at Paka, and declared that if something happened here, they’d open fire. They placed another cannon in front of what’s now the town hall, it used to be the court. I happened to be in the arcade on the square, when suddenly there was a huge bang, and I saw people running towards the court. The soldier who was guarding the cannon had probably toyed with it, and the cannon was loaded. He touched something and the cannon went off. Luckily, the barrel was pointing to the ground and in the direction of the court; it smashed all the windows.”

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    Nová Paka byt pamětníka, 15.04.2015

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War is the worst for ordinary folk, they get hurt the most both at home and on the front

Šeps Vratislav PNS 2015
Šeps Vratislav PNS 2015
zdroj: natáčení PNS
zdroj: natáčení PNS
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Vratislav Šeps was born in 1933 in Hradec Králové. In 1936 he moved to Nová Paka with his brother and parents; his father managed a pub there. His father was devastated when the border regions were surrendered to Germany without a fight; he died in 1942. Mrs Šepsová continued to manage the pub, and the London broadcast was a regular feature of the place. Towards the end of the war the Wehrmacht commandeered the school that Vratislav attended and changed it into a hospital. The witness was given regular homework, but there were no lessons. German civilians fleeing from the approaching front passed through Nová Paka together with transports of POWs and prisoners. The Czech May uprising broke out in Nová Paka on the third day of May, and the witness watched the Wehrmacht give up its arms. The following day a unit of German soldiers entered the town and put an end to the matter. With cannons trained on the town, the group of rebel civilians were only saved from execution by the hospital commander. When the soldiers left, all weapons and military equipment were taken to the Sokol training grounds and gym hall. Vratislav Šeps and his friends continued to find both weapons and ammunition, but toying with their finds cost some of the boys their health or even their life.

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