"There were hilarious scenes, because when their commander got drunk he shouted that he was - I don't know - General so-and-so. And then, of course, we had to go to the May Day Square, and when the border guards came in, they had a dog on a leash, and the chief commentator was shouting into the microphone, `Welcome our able-bodied border guards and gynecologists,' and instead of saying cynologists, he said gynecologists."
"The atmosphere, it was a shock because suddenly there were troops. Thanks to the radio, there was no major bloodshed, but it was still very stressful. My sister and I thought about emigrating, but because we were with those grandparents, we didn't dare leave them at that time and leave the country."
"My grandparents, for example, were from southern Bohemia, so they took in a child to raise, that was then my aunt, who was lost. It was interesting that she was of German origin, but in the chaos after 1945 she stayed in the village. So they took her in and eventually raised her. And when she was dying, she remembered German... she started speaking German. Even though she had lived her whole life in Bohemia, married a Czech husband, on her deathbed she was speaking German and singing German songs."
Marie Homerová, née Štojdlová, was born on 8 February 1947 in the village of Jehličná in the Sokolov region. Her native village no longer exists today, in its place coal mines stand. Maria‘s grandparents lived in Trhové Sviny and after the war they took in a German girl who was left alone after the German population was deported. After high school in Sokolov, Marie entered the faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. In 1969, her father Jan emigrated to West Germany. After graduation (1970) she was placed in a school in Sušice. In the meantime she got married, had children and moved to Prague. After her maternity leave she worked at the clothing industry in Holešovice and after 1989 at the Jan Kepler Gymnasium. In the 1990s, Marie became involved in international projects, translated, wrote publications on history and became a guide in Prague. She lived in Prague at the time of the filming (2023).
