Friendship in spite of Hitler (Ukázka, strana 99)

just before she gives birth in order to flee to safety?

There was no time to lose – I decided there and then that my sister was coming to Sweden with us.

It was obvious that it was up to me to take care of her and her child.

“By now the patrols were all over Copenhagen.

We were advised to head for the coast. The trains were packed: everyone was trying to get away.

Luckily we had enough sense not to take heavy suitcases with us. Those with heavy suitcases were immediately conspicuous – the Nazis picked them out and checked their details. We left the train at Stubbekøbing, a port, where I went from fisherman to fisherman asking if they’d take us. They told us: “Only without the child. It’ll start to howl and give the game away. So make your mind up.” We tried over and over again until we talked one of them into it. We gave him all our money. We squeezed into the boat’s hold, where we stayed for twelve hours.

The amazing thing was, Roni survived the journey better than any of us. The rest of us spent most of it vomiting, while she slept through the whole thing.

Lulled by the waves, she slept like an angel. It took my sister a long time to get over things. She was very glad that we took care of her daughter. We treated our little niece like our own child.”

Ukázka elektronické knihy, UID: KOS209950

A few days later they succeeded in reaching the town of Alingsås, where there was a refugee camp.

The office for refugees gave them makeshift papers, which entitled them to temporary residence in Sweden. Arnošt got a job at a dairy in Alingsås; his wife-to-be worked in a textiles factory in Gothenburg. “On January 25th, 1944 I signed up for our army,” says Arnošt. “There was no decision to make. Why not? Well, first of all we were all Ukázka elektronické knihy, UID: KOS209950

patriots, although today the word ‘patriot’ sounds almost vulgar. We were stateless, but no one could take away from us the fact that we were Czechs. The Swedes and later the Danes offered us grants, work, quite a comfortable life, but that was not for us. The second reason we enlisted in the army concerned our families in the Czech lands – we weren’t expecting to find out that they had perished. We were hoping that our parents would return, even though we’d had no news of them since 1942. We told ourselves that when they got home, they would need us to take care of them. On top of all that, we believed that anyone in a position to do something against Hitler, should do so. Looking back, we were in the army for a short time only, but we couldn’t have known then that’s how it would be. In January 1944, when we signed up, no one could predict how long the war would last.”

After a few months in Sweden, Zuzana and Arnošt decided to get married. But it is not easy to find out how their big day went. Each has their own version. “It was a sunny day,” one of them says.

“No, it wasn’t,” says the other, “it was pouring with rain.” They may not agree on this, but they agree on everything else. A few weeks after the wedding, Arnošt was summoned to Stockholm. Report to this Ukázka elektronické knihy, UID: KOS209950