Radomír Daněk

"When I went to the service, I was really afraid, I wished that no one would go, so that the weapon would not have to be used, because they advised us there: 'Shoot in bursts and put the first burst into the person and put the second burst in the air as a warning shot. No one knows which one was a warning and which one was...' That was what the professional soldiers gave us advice."

“I was not quite sober and met up a boy and a girl from Zlín in a Prague restaurant. I was spitting on the regime and he said I should stop talking and sign SPUSA. I asked what it was and he explained it was the US Friendship Community. We started talking and I agreed to sign up. He informed us that our names will be announced in the SPUSA magazine and I did not mind it. Also the alcohol consumption helped me being much more courageous. We signed it and there was a silence, nothing happening, so I quite forgot about it. I kept coming to Jirsák, which was a kind of a lair of the ill-behaving youth, where the hairies went, and one learned a lot. I feel that it was the daddy of Honza Havlíček, who brought me an envelope home with the Folks newspaper in it, Vokno and lots of other prints.“

“Stanislav Devátý was already in illegality and he was after his first release as he was on a hunger strike. So we went to his tiny flat and got some prints there. I believe there was also the petition Several Sentences. Then we went to another guy and distributed prints in Uničov and Šumperk. Meanwhile I used to attend biblical lessons with Mr. Veber. For me it was a wonderful experience. He represented a great character for me, and he asked me, what if god didn’t exist, what if we simply made it up... That was a slap in a face on my way from the meeting. He planted a seed of doubt, to make me think and not take anything for granted. I understood that as time went on.“

“We heard at a music concert that they beat the students, and for the first time only two cops came in, did not take any action and just went away. There was a petition for the coke factory to be canceled. In Šumperk, however, petitions were often signed; such as the release of Standa Devátý or Cibulka. Everyone who went to Jirsak signed it. It was a kind of a center. We met to the Moravan on Monday and there the first demonstration, which took place on Tuesday, was agreed to happen in Šumperk. So I and Lada Kočib have going around people to participate in the demonstration. It seemed more important for me to demonstrate in such small places than to have the whole of Czechoslovakia in Prague. So I personally did not attend any demonstrations in Prague, but all that took place in Šumperk.”

“My brother with his family got a foreign exchange voucher to Yugoslavia, and I bought a trip to Yugoslavia. We agreed to meet up in Split. I reported that I was going for a trip to Split and in a few days I would return. I met with my brother there, got into the car and drove all the way to the Italian border. In the morning we were in Pula and then we drove to Koper. At a customs office the Yugoslav customs officer told us that we need a visa from the Koper consulate and they would let us pass with the visa. We returned really pleased to go to Italy, and my sister-in-law suffered coughing bouts, yet she was coughing blood. It was a terribly difficult decision for my brother to get started in the hospital right now. So we had a dilemma. He gave me money to emigrate myself. I told him that if I did, I'd take his passport and he never gets anywhere. So we sat there and discussed it all and eventually decided to return to try again in two years. So I came back from Yugoslavia in June, and a few people knew I did not want to come back and were surprised to see me back in the pub."