Ondřej Němec

“If we wanted to say something, we knew how to. For instance, Pavla would have something written in large letters in her notebook, which we hadn’t said but my parents managed to read it. Or she had a picture of the ten people from the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted in her wallet. By showing it to them, they knew they were not forgotten and that something was taking place. Luckily, all ended up pretty well for my parents because they hadn’t taken our siblings from us. Of course that we were inspected by social workers. But those were more or less normal women from the institute for children’s well-being, who observed that there was food in the house. Surprisingly, a lot of decent people had also gotten in touch. First of all, we were helped by friends, but also our school teachers whom I recalled as rather unpleasant people. Now, they were asking us whether we needed help with cooking, which was quite a shock. Those were teachers from our elementary school and they knew all of us. But this came as a surprise. We thanked them but didn’t want them coming to our help, and we managed on our own. Then again, from today’s perspective, it is hard to imagine my children being able to handle such a situation… From an early age, we were brought up knowing that this might happen and that there were things which were worth it.”

“It was an amazing experience to hear Václav Havel speaking at the stage. I recall it in detail that we went out in front of Činoherák, walking up through Krakovská street or, in fact, Ve Smečkách. I was walking along Petruška Šustrová who was also in Wroclaw and told her: ‘Now, Petruška, could you have imagined two weeks ago in Wroclaw listening to Vašek Havel here in Prague at a stage?’ She replied: ‘Well, could you have imagined two days ago?’ I said: ‘Well, you’re right.’ We had no idea whatsoever. I don’t consider it plausible when people claim they knew a year or two ahead. We knew nothing.”