„Nejhorší zážitek jsem měl v noci, v protileteckém krytu. Stál nad ním takový řadový domek v Ječné ulici. Ještě tam je. Dole v prádelně byl vyztužený strop vzpěrami. Tam jsme se při náletu uchýlili. Cítil jsem hukot letadel a třesoucí se okenní tabulky. To mám stále v uších.“
„Bydleli jsme nad tratí v takovém menším domku. To jsem měl také strach, když přilétali hloubkaři. Snesli se nízko nad vlak s cisternami. Byl v nich líh a motorový olej. Oni je prostříleli i tu lokomotivu. Prostříleli celý vlak. Byl tam kolem trati plný příkop oleje. Lidé chodili s kbelíky nabírat crčící líh z cisteren a nosili si ho domů.“
„Přišel duben 1945, kdy letci, kteří byli pravděpodobně zaměření protileteckou obranou, se museli zbavit nákladu bomb a shodili je na Slovany do vilové čtvrti. Naši se strašně lekli. Naložili jsme mladšího bratra na kočárek a jeli podle řeky Úslavy a polními cestami do Starého Plzence, kde jsem měl tetu. Tam jsme byli až do osvobození americkou armádou.“
"This helmet here, I grabbed it when it fell out of the U. S. Army jeep. It is such a lightweight helmet, not the heavy steel one, but they had this sort of light helmets. They would put them on, those were made out of some lightweight material, and only in combat, they would put on the steel helmets."
"My dossier was bad because I would meet the pastors from the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren whom the regime disliked. At the end, almost all of them lost the state approval for performance of spiritual service. Which means that rather being priests, they had to find another job."
Jaroslav Kraus was born on the 21th January in 1935 in Plzeň. His father was a clerk at the City Council of the City of Plzeň, his mother was a homemaker. They lived in the Petřín suburb of Plzeň. The witness used to spend his childhood at his grandfather’s in the countryside and he helped with the harvest. In spring 1954, he witnessed the liberation of Plzeň by the U. S. army. After WWII, he attended basic school and secondary school; after having graduated from the latter, he went to the medical school, where he graduated in 1959. He got a job in the hospital in Cheb at the radiology department. In 1968, he moved to Mariánské Lázně where he became the head of the radiology ward. During the normalisation years, the State Security listed him as an enemy of the people due to his activities in the protestant church. In November 1989, he was one of the founding members of the Civic Forum in Mariánské Lázně. At the time of recording, he still worked in the City Hospital of Mariánské Lázně as the head of the radiology department.
