Arnošt Rusek, born Stamberger, was born on 19 March 1921 in Ostrava and grew up in Mariánské Hory. His parents owned an apartment house and lived in it. His mother was very ill and needed help. He went to kindergarten and later to the elementary school, and attended the “reálné gymnázium" (in German Realgymnasium) high school in Matiční Street.
He was the first in his family to receive a summons to enter the "retraining camp" in Nisko on San. His father also arrived in the same camp in the second transport. They escaped from the camp that was still under construction. They were hiding in the forest and crossed the border into the USSR.
Arnošt was sent by the Soviet authorities to Novosibirsk, where he worked as a lumberjack. Later, he enlisted in the Czechoslovak military unit and was drafted to Buzuluk. There he was assigned to study at the school for officers and underwent military training, he also met a military nurse whom he later married. He fought near Kiev, where he lost his leg.
After recovering, he organized conscriptions to Svoboda's army and directed its training camps. Gradually, he and his wife got to Prague and then to Ostrava as part of a rear regiment. In 1945, their daughter Klaudia was born. Arnošt worked at the military base in Ostrava until 1955. Then he took a job as a clerk of the City National Committee and later worked at the Regional National Committee in the Department for Construction.
The interview was filmed on 9 November 1996 in Ostrava.
Bedřich Kopold was born on 10 August 1921 in Moravská Ostrava. His father ran a restaurant. During the economic crisis in the 1930s he went bankrupt and committed suicide.
Bedřich was active in the youth organisation of the Social Democrats. After the occupation, he was forced to leave high school and apprenticed as a baker. On 17 October 1939, in response to a written summons, he appeared at the riding school and was deported to Nisko on San. He managed to escape from the camp to the Polish territory occupied by the Soviet Union.
After reaching Lvov, he enlisted in the labor recruitment, was sent to Donbas, where he became a miner. In November 1941, he was sent by the Soviet authorities to Asia, where he worked on cotton plantations. He applied for a Czechoslovak military unit and was drafted to Buzuluk. In March 1943, he took part in the Battle of Sokolov. His most successful operation was the Battle of Kiev after which he became an education officer and was the director of the Naše vojsko magazine. He married Jiřina Švermová.
In 1954, he was one of the victims of a mock trial of alleged Zionist conspirators in the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (the so-called Slánský trial) and was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. After his release in 1956, he worked in a mine, completed his high school studies, getting the school-leaving certificate, and later studied psychology and work psychology at the university. After graduating, he became an employee of the Czech Technical University in Prague. He died in March 2007.
The interview was recorded on 3 October 1996 in Prague.