11/07/2014 Witness


11/07/2014

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Welcome to Witness, our look back at history as told by the people who

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were there. I'm in the very heart of London at the British library, which

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is home to hundreds and hundreds of years of priceless manuscripts and

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archive material. This month, we talked to a South African woman,

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who, as a schoolgirl, organised an uprising. A survivor of a Second

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World War massacre. And a footballer who scored the winning goal in a

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World Cup. But first to China. It is 25 years since the massacre in

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Tiananmen Square. This young man was just one of thousands who

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demonstrated, protesting in the centre of Beijing, when the military

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moved in. Nobody knows how many people were killed, injured or

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arrested in the crackdown of June, 1989. He was just 18. Tiananmen

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Square is designed to fit at least a couple of million people. It was

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bumper`to`bumper full. You could feel at the time that something was

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going on. You could see millions of ordinary citizens of Beijing

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blocking army lorries from coming in. 10,000 Chinese troops have tried

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to seize control of the centre of the king tonight `` Beijing tonight.

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Their demands were for democracy, free press and an end to corruption.

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It was the last year of my high school studies. Me and five others

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of my classmates. We said, we are going, and we walked out. On the 4th

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of June, Central television started to broadcast this ominous message

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repeatedly for quite a few hours. Those citizens, please return to

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your homes. The army and security forces are coming in to clear the

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city centre. If you disobey this order, you will be responsible for

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all of the consequences. Most people decided to stay where they were and

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are then things started to unravel. I could hear this boom, boom, boom.

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You could hear those sounds. And then you start to see people

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bleeding, being carried to various hospitals around you, people crying

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and shouting. I felt numb. It was beyond anybody's comprehension. You

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focus your mind. You are trying to get to a place of safety. For a

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moment, it could be behind a dumpster, a rubbish bin. I

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eventually got home. My mother was worried sick and she locked the

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doors and my brother and I were still pumped. We should find a

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kitchen knife or something and go out and do something. She said, you

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guys, don't be stupid. You cannot affect any change at this moment.

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Nothing. News reader: In the daylight hours, more violence. A

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sudden and steady volley from the troops. I remember sitting on the

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sofa in the living room, hearing all of the scale is going on around us.

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On the second day, while you could still hear sporadic firing, nobody

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dared venture too far away. You sort of poke your head out. First out of

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the alleyway and then the secondary road and then trying to see whatever

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is going on. The first thing was littered worlds burned`out army

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trucks. I even sought to armoured personnel carriers burned`out from

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inside. Tangled bicycles that had been driven over by heavy vehicles.

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I felt an utter sense of desperation and despair. I did not feel there

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was a future. My father was in Canada. He was unable to apply for a

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family reunion user for my mother and my brother and I, so I was very

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fortunate at the time to leave. I'm taking you to the World Cup,

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now. Not this year's World Cup but the 160 years ago and the man who

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scored the winning goal. `` but the one that was 60 years ago. Back

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then, he was a 23`year`old winger from Uruguay. Now, he is 87 but he

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is still known as the man who made Brazil cry. TRANSLATION: I played

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for Uruguay at the Maracana Stadium in 1950. We were the underdogs.

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Brazil had been winning their matches by four, five, six goals.

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The Brazilian papers had special editions ready with the headline:

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Brazil! Champions of the world! They had built the huge Maracana Stadium

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especially because they thought they would win the World Cup. We got

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there three hours early because it was so full. When the Brazilian team

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went out, they brought the house down. Their fans were already

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jumping up and down with joy and if Brazil had one, it would have been a

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carnival. `` if the deal had won the World Cup, it would have been a

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carnival. I was just thinking about winning. I never like to lose a

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football match. We knew that Brazil would press hard at the start but we

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were ready for that. And we managed to keep it at 0`0 until half`time

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will stop but then, Brazil got the ball to their forward. He shot and

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our goalkeeper dived but he could not reach it. Then our captain

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said, lads, we have got to go for it! We started to attack, attack,

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attack! I passed the ball to my team`mate. He took a shot and put it

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in the net. It was 1`1! Luckily, with 11 minutes to go, I got the

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ball on the wing. And I went straight towards the goal. The

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keeper left a little gap in the goal, so I had a split second to

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decide whether to pass or shoot. I shot and it went to the left of the

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keeper. He could not stop it and that was our second goal. It was

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very beautiful, very exciting. It was the best goal I ever scored. The

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stadium went cold. The fans stopped cheering and there was an enormous

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silence. The Brazilian players went cold themselves. They did not look

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like a team who needed to get a goal back. It stayed at 2`1. The referee

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blew the whistle and we went mad with joy. We did a lap of honour and

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we saw the Brazilians go off crying. Then we looked at the stands

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and all of the fans were weeping. They had thought they were already

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world champions but everything had gone wrong for them. Three people

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have silenced the Maracana Stadium. The Pope, Frank Sinatra and me. It

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was a heavy blow for Brazil and it still hurts them to this day. One

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time, I went to Brazil and there was this young girl of 23 or 24 at

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passport control, so I gave her my IDE. She asked if I was the man from

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the Maracana Stadium. I said, yes, but that was a long time ago. She

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said no, no, it still hurts us here. It seems Brazilians pass this

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pain from generation to generation. We cannot show you a photograph of

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our next witness in 1976 because the police raided her family's home and

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took all of the photographs. She was a schoolgirl in Soweto when the

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apartheid South African government decided that black schoolchildren

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should be taught in Afrikaans. She helped organise what became known as

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the Soweto uprising. I was 19 years old in a ladies high school, my

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final year. Both of us had taken Afrikaans as a language but to take

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it as a medium of instruction meant that every subject would then have

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to be changed into Afrikaans, which we did not speak and our teachers

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did not speak and essentially meant that we would fail by forcing us to

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speak a language that was foreign to us and also was a language we

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resented and hated as it represented everything that was meant to pull us

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down. The 16th of June, when we heard at school on the day, we took

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over the assembly. We were all going to converge and march to the

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stadium. We then gave instructions and reminded each other of the rules

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of the game. We were peaceful, we were not seeking confrontation in

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any way. And when we marched, make sure that we are responsible for

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somebody else, so you are holding somebody else's hand all the time.

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So, it was very quiet. It was a cold day but you do not feel the cold

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when you have such a big mission. As we marched, we began to hear word

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that the police and then not only the police, actually there were

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people from the Army... And in no time, Soweto was surrounded by the

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Army. The first hour of the march, we had tear gas. We were beginning

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to get scared. Then we began to hear the sound of the guns and it is a

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horrible sound. It is the most horrible sound. Police were shooting

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anything that was wearing a school uniform. It was like target

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shooting. And we ducked and we would hide in the house of Soweto. Those

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who were driving around in vehicles already had messages that two people

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had died. And, scared as we were, somehow there was a readiness to

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die. Certainly, that is the price that any of us would be willing to

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pay. I was angry. I have never been so angry. I was ready to do

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anything. I'm not surprised so many young people left and took up arms.

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I was not sad. If I cried, I cried out of frustration and eight deep

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anger. They took away our childhood. I think about my naivete that I

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started with on that day. It ended that night. We ended that day

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without these held a high. It felt good that I could still in the face

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of such adversity hold my fist up and say power and get a response. To

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us. Everyone knows that when you are a

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teenager, you define ourselves by the clothes you wear and the music

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you listen to. In the 1960s in Britain, many were either a mod or a

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broker. In 1965, this man saw himself as a mod. The whole mod

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theme started around 1958 or the 60s. Rock 'n roll and jazz reached

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the UK and send people in slightly different directions. On one hand,

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you had rockers following the American influence of rock and roll

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and on the other you have modernists who followed modern jazz. The way

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you dressed was an identifier. We so rockers as being greasy and

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uneducated. There was always animosity. I remember once, a car

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full of rockers cut me off on my scooter and I had to stop. They gave

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me some wax and some cakes and laughed and jumped in their car and

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drove off `` whacks and kicks. We grew up feeling oppressed by rockers

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and I think that is what was behind the explosion of violence that took

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place on 1964 over the bank holiday weekend. Even on the way down, we

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were aware that there were more scooters going down and when we got

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to the beach, there were many more of us than usual, more scooters than

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usual and we were notably outnumbering the rockers. Somebody

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had the idea of throwing a deck chair off onto the rockers below

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them, that is probably where it first took off. The mods seemed to

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break off in little groups and went off looking for trouble. Sporadic

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fights broke up coming smashing windows and destruction. I seem to

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recall many people being trapped on the beach. Brighton Beach is a mass

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of stones. A policeman came out and kicked me on the ear. I guess I

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could've been called a coward at the time because I did not start running

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at police or anything. I paid good money for my outfits and I was not

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going to risk getting them dirty. I felt at the time, isn't this great?

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There are so many of us now, I can finally walk down the street where I

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live and not worry about getting attacked by some greasy haired guy

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in a leather jacket and his mates. Jeff Dexter who is quite a famous

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early mod said, " When you are a mod, you are a mod all the way, from

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your first mohair suit to win your hair turns grey". I have grey hair

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now so I suppose I can say that is true. `` when. Half a century on and

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still proud to be a mod. And why not? Let's go now to

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Czechoslovakia. It is 1942, halfway through the Second World War. This

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girl was 16 years old and a schoolgirl when her village was

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singled out for reprisals by the Nazi occupiers after a high`profile

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assassination. They filmed the uprising to use as propaganda and

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the footage survived and is in the national archives in

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Czechoslovakia. She takes us back to the 10th of June, 1942. TRANSLATION:

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The Germans came to our house at 3:30am. They looked quite normal and

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said, leave everything just as it is, you will just be taken for two

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days to the school. But my father had been in World War I and knew

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something was wrong and said God willing we should meet again, do not

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forget God. I said, what are you talking about? We will be back in

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two days. Attention, here is an official announcement. Your

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refutable evidence has come to liked that this village aided and abetted

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a. `` assassins. We have been occupied by the German army. The man

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in charge was hard, awful. Our government in exile in England,

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including the president decided that something must be done. They decided

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to carry out an assassination. The funeral was on the 4th of June. At

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the funeral, Hitler said that the people of Czechoslovakia should be

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punished and that this sort of thing should not be tolerated and they

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came up with an idea. To wipe out a village. They started shooting the

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men at 7:00am. They brought in a cameraman from Prague so they could

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show the world what they had done. They made a film with the village

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already in flames. The church in blown up `` being. Then they

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flattened it to the ground. 173 men were executed. There were around 300

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of us, women and children. They called us into one of the classrooms

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at the school. We went in and they wrote our names in the register. An

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officer talked with me and wanted to put me with the children but looked

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again at my date of birth and that saved my life. I was put with the

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women and not the children. This is the biggest tragedy of the whole

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story. On the 3rd of July, it let them ride home. `` they. The cards

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were stamped with the date coming the 5th of July but by that time,

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the children were already dead. They massacred 82 children. We women were

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sent on a slow train and arrived on the 14th of June at the

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concentration camp. The whole three years I hope that I would see my

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father again and that we would once again be a whole family. When I came

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home, it was as much of a shock as when I had arrived at the camp. I

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should have been glad that there was freedom and that the war was over

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but how could I be glad when my father was dead? I returned to a

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funeral, not a celebration that our Republic was free again. What an

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extraordinary experience hearing that story. That is all from Witness

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for this month, next month we will be bringing you the story of a boat

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full of environmental activists that was sunk by French secret agents.

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You can see all of these films at our website at the following link.

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From the, for now, thanks for joining us `` from me. Hello. Well,

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after a night with more thunderstorms across the country, we

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are still going to be left with a lot of heat and humidity. They

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continue to push their way northwards across the UK, producing

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