František Žebrák

“…but we were soldiers. We knew that Germany was losing the war. One could even hear it on the radio. There was no television back then but they reported the news from Oberkommando der Wehrmacht on the radio.” – “How did your officers comment on that? How did they motivate you for training? Hadn’t it felt stupid to drill for something when the war was lost anyway?” – “A simple soldier couldn’t do anything about it. We were happy to obey and to receive something. But a soldier could do nothing. It was the politicians’ job to get things sorted.”

“There were shelters there – just cellars without much equipment. I haven’t witnessed a cellar being hit directly. But there were plenty of civilians in the city, around 280 thousand. And it was really unpleasant there among those women, children, young people, old people… It was iffy. The women had cried, people had prayed… Once when the grenades were falling I hid for just a while – not even half an hour – in a cellar, the building trembled, dust was falling, and women were screaming and praying. It was awkward. So I rather rushed out and proceeded towards my unit between those bullets and grenades.”

“She rolled up my trousers and she took of my socks. They stuck to my swollen feet. She could not believe how I could have endured it. She began to treat my feet. She washed my feet, cleaned them, she applied some powder and ointments. When she put the socks back on my feet, I felt as if I had been reborn. A young girl and she washed my feet.”

“When we became part of Germany, all the people automatically received German citizenship and Czech crowns were exchanged for Marks. For 1 Crown we got 1 Mark. That was very nice, because 1 Mark cost 8 or 10 Crowns at that time. There were great changes, and our life changed very much by that.”

“I don’t know what happened, but suddenly I was lying on the ground. The Feldwebel was lying next to me and he was rolling around. He probably suffered great pain and he was groaning terribly. I said: ‘Wait, sir, I will help you.’ But as I tried to stand up, I could not. I was wounded as well. I felt some warm liquid in my gloves, it was blood. My eye was covered with blood which was flowing from my face, and I felt something warm on my back, too. I suffered a penetration wound above my knee, and here in my arm, but it all went through the muscle and no bone has been hit. Altogether I got fourteen penetration wounds… It happened on 23rd February at half past nine in the morning. My mom was just celebrating her fortieth birthday and later she told me that at half past nine she began to feel sick and she remembered me and started crying. She immediately said: ‘Something happened to Franta.’”