Marie Soběhartová

"I thought I'd go back to my friend's if she went to church. We lived by the road in Mrs. Durchan's house at the time. Before I left, I washed my head and made ma hair… How could you afford to visit a barber then? And I run there a short distance down the road, it wasn't far. The bus to Chudenice and Staňkov stopped at their cottage, so I ran to that friend, I stayed there for a while, and when I went out again, I heard such a rumble, everything was shaking, roads, barracks. So I waited and suddenly I saw the tanks coming out from below, in the direction from Klatovy. There were submachine guns and American flags. I ran back to the kitchen and shouted, 'The Americans are here!' So they all ran out of the cottage, but we weren't sure for a while. That is, the night the Americans arrived, the Germans were still there, preparing to be deported to retreat at night. And the Americans arrived in the morning, it could have been eight or nine o'clock, not later. What a havoc! The tanks drove slowly, the boys waved to us, stopped in front of the house. You can't imagine that. The whole Poleň met at that tank. My mom had a brewed beer in the cellar, we had baked buns, we brought everything to the tanks there. What a joy! Well, they weren't there for a long time, then they went on right away. But they took everything we gave them."