“When the Germans blew up our bridges in Přerov, a paving stone from Tyrš bridge fell on our balcony on the third floor where our flat was. It is about one kilometre from that bridge. We hid that stone for a long time. I do not know where it is now.”
“We experienced an air raid in Přerov, it was about 1944. And I know that I was playing the piano at that moment and they called me: ‘Come and have a look, they are flying low!‘ So we went to have a look and the explosions could be heard suddenly. And we then run down the stairs to the cellar, but it was already late because nothing exploded since then.”
“I remember an event. It happened at school. We were more or less taught by a parish priest, because the headmistress of the Czech school was already German, and the parish priest was the only one there who knew Czech. He was giving a lecture on the creation of the world and that everything around us was its subject. And I took out a map of the Republic and asked: ‘Did God create all of this?‘ And he became quite angry and told me to hide it immediately. And I did not understand if it was because I was disturbing class or because he knew that the map was not valid and that it was wrong. It made a very bad impression on me, which is why I told everyone. Well and the other resident of our house in Nový Jičín accompanied me back home because he was retired and could take the long way to school and pick me up and take me home. Because there was a danger that someone would hurt me.”
“And we had a radio and used to listen to the news at seven o´clock in the evening. And it was clear that the war was coming. Everyone was afraid. And I remember that dad enlisted and we carried his suitcase to the railway station on a pram. And we three children were then alone with our mum. And when the occupation of Sudetenland started, I remember that we escaped by taxi to Přerov to my mother's aunt, whose name was [Marie] Kozánková and who was the wife of the Přerov organ player and director of the music school."
Milan Geryk was born on 3 August 1932 in Nový Jičín to teachers Adolf Geryk and Zdeňka Geryková. At the end of the 1930s, he experienced growing tension between the majority German and minority Czech population in the town. The family had to leave the town in a hurry at the beginning of October 1938 after the occupation of Sudetenland by the Nazi Germany. He then spent the war in Přerov where he witnessed the marches of the German troops and the air raids of the Allies. In May 1945, he witnessed the anti-Nazi uprising and the destruction of local infrastructure by the retreating German army. He did sports in Sokol after the war and he took part in Sokol Slet in Prague in 1948. He graduated from College of Civil Engineering in Brno in 1956 where he then started to work as an assistant professor. He had to stop teaching there because of his religious belief. He worked in Přerov Engineering Works from 1961 to 1991 and he developed and researched rotary kilns there. He got married to Libuše Ingrová in 1965, their daughter Iveta was born two years later. From 1991, he taught mathematics at university for ten years. During the time of the recording of the interview (2021), the witness continued to be an active member of Přerov Sokol and TJ Spartak Přerov chess section. He was living in Přerov in 2021.