Marie Kohli

„When we came to Czechoslovakia for the second time, along with our three children, before we left, a couple who had a son who lived in Canada, they brought such a bag with mushrooms and asked me to také it to their son in Canada. My older brother was more experienced, he looked through the content and there was a film I was supposed to smuggle unknowingly. Obviously I would not get through. They would find the film, they would say I was a spy. They did not care that I had three small children. They would make me… not sure if my husband as well… nd all that was organised in Ústí nad Orlicí [seat of the district where Letohrad is] and they certainly had support from the city council. Well then I thought… I would be innocent. They would throw me in jail, the children were small… they did not care the slightest. Why? I know. They probably wanted to take their revenge. This animosity of people who were against them [Communists], it was still there – and it flourished.”

„I would like to mention one more thing. When I was attending the Business Academy, out of the blue, they changed the seating order. Many years later, I found that the girl whom they seated to my table had to snitch on me and submit regular reports. Naturally, she did not want to do it but her father was a Communist bigwig. He forced her. Now, in hindsight, when they needed to spy on fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls, what sort of government is this?”