'It was when Klusak spoke. A famous song with a Polish melody but Czech lyrics was sung there. The song is very popular in Moravia and they sing it regularly around 5 July. And it always ends with: Lord, preserve the inheritance of our fathers. And the last strophe is: Even if the proud incredulity rises and the hell spreads seeds of new confusions, we shall not be afraid of the ancient murderer, we shall not be deprived of our eternal possession. The Moravians will always be loyal in faith, Lord, preserve the inheritance of our fathers to us.' And this was thundering around there. The thousands of people were thundering.'
'As we were waiting for a speech of the minister, our headmaster had his speech. He mentioned everything, all about this voluntary work. He had always figures at hand: how many children, how many employed people, how many of them are mothers and stuff like that, these awful statistics. How many hours they worked in industry, agriculture or picking hops. And my colleagues would fill in exaggerated figures in these surveys. It was in per cents and sometimes the part would be bigger than the whole. Later they would find out there were mistakes. And when it was 9 am, the state broadcast started playing on the radio in all classrooms. The programme for kindergarten was just ending. And the headmaster finished his speech with condemning the imperialists and talked about the villain Reagan. But right at the moment when they turned on the state broadcast, there was a famous child song where little children´s voices sing in the second strophe: ' What a lie! Lie this high!' And that was what everyone could hear from loud speakers in every classroom of the school right after the headmaster's speech ended.'
'It was when they hauled us over the coals again. I was one of the religious girls but there was also a medicine student Karel Tomek. We were both to graduate that year and there was also Anicka Stefanova acting on behalf of the hall of residence. And they wanted us to restore our activities. But we refused to be in the committee and take part in dismissing our colleagues. So they promised they would give us back the log cabins from the summer camp, they had taken. And also they promised us the hall of residence which was originally for male Moravianists. And it looked as if one of the colleagues considered this: 'Would you really give them back?' And they said yes. And then Karel said thoughtfully: 'Well, I have heard this before: If you fall and bow to them...' It was from the Gospel, the temptation in the desert where Christ was tempted by Satan.'
Jarmila Janská was born as Jarmila Kohnova in Zlin on 19 October, 1927. Her father was a headmaster of Bata´s Boarding Houses and Evening School for Young Ladies. Before the World War II, her family changed their name. Still, her father was repeatedly attacked by members of the fascist organization ‚The Flag‘. He was threatened with death in a letter. Jarmila graduated from Masaryk Experimental and Differential National School. After WWII she became an official of the organization Junak - Czech Scouting. In 1946, after passing her school-leaving exam, she started to study Czech and English at Masaryk University in Brno. Having completed a study programme faster than other students, she graduated as early as the summer 1950. In following 11 years she was being transferred from place to place as a teacher and she taught at six schools in the Kromeriz district. She was dismissed from the school system for her religious beliefs and worked in public libraries of the district since 1961. In 1966 she returned to the grammar school in Holesov where she later spent a great part of her professional career until she retired. After the revolution in 1989 she helped as a teacher in Holesov and Prostejov. At the present she lives in Holesov and despite her health problems she keeps still very active. Edit: Jarmila Janska died in 2018.
