Petr Misík

"Then, after his conviction, when my father got his twenty-three years, he was transferred to the Vojna II camp near Příbram – I remember it was written there. So, we went to visit him with my uncle and my aunt to this camp in Příbram. And there again – those were the camp barracks – and again the only thing that stays in my mind is the sight of those wire fences, those low houses and those guard towers. And whether they led us through the blue corridor or the grey corridor, these things I miss. Because there were always too many sensations. Dad was moved, with tears in his eyes. And there, like, sometimes we could make a direct contact, like he would grab my head and give me a kiss or something. That is in there, that stayed there."

"We had our annual ROH meeting on Monday at Dubce in the garden, in a sort of community room, where the new leadership was to be elected. And that was going on quite normally, ordinarily, so we were electing the old leadership again, which was there – there was nothing going on at all. And I was getting upset, I stood up, I stepped back – we were sitting at the normal four-seat tables – and I said, 'Don't you get what's going on?' And now all of a sudden, it has erupted, this big discussion. Because these people were silent, but at the same time everybody was watching that something was happening. So, the whole election was reversed, the whole thing was annulled that day. Because I stepped out, they elected me chairman of the company committee that day. Well, and we went to the director and we made him – there were the first demonstrations in Boleslav in the Lenin Square, today it is Republic Square – so we made him have a vehicle towed there, a platform. We made a railing on it, we made the first stage out of it."