From the very first moment, Mother Sobotková treated us as though we were her own children. The Sobotka couple were willing to hide us and to help us with clothing and food, but from the outset they looked for a safer hiding place than their own apartment. Hrastka, one of the family’s friends, who had been an officer in the Czech army before the war, owned a shop that sold artificial flowers. His shop was closed because it had no prospective customers. He agreed to hide us in the shop’s storeroom.
A short time after we moved from the Sobotka apartment to the shop, the Germans conducted a search of the family’s apartment, which had been under suspicion all along. In the kitchen, food was found that had been prepared to be sent to us.
We stayed in the flower shop until May 1945. Members of the Sobotka family, and their friends, organized a rotation for bringing food to our hiding place.
The Russians were drawing close to Prague and the Germans retreated in haste. This was an opportunity for the Czechs to emerge from the underground and to hasten the evacuation of the Czech capital. The owner of the artificial flower shop, who had previously been an officer in the Czech army and had gone underground, asked us whether we were willing to join the ranks of the fighting liberators. Even though we were still weak, we responded with enthusiasm. We were given weapons and basic training in their use, and we were assigned primarily guard and security duties on the second line.
On May 8th, the Russians reached Prague.

For our participation in the battles for the liberation of the Czech capital, we were awarded citations and certificates confirming our participation in the liberation of Prague. Hrastka brought us to the population registration office and made sure that we were issued temporary documents recognizing us as Czechoslovak citizens, until the authorities could process the formal confirmation of our citizenship in that country.