Petr Pokorný

"I was coming back from school. My mother worked at the children's hospital as a social worker, but the apartment belonged to my grandmother, who was retired, and coincidentally there was a house trustee at home, so they asked for him. I think there were two of them, the State Security members, and the third one was waiting for them in Volga in front of the house. They searched the whole apartment, confiscated about 12 things, but otherwise they were quite decent, they didn't destroy anything or throw anything away unnecessarily, which I have to say was some progress compared to the 1950s, when they almost destroyed the apartment during those searches. Well, they peeked into the basement and otherwise searched the place. My grandmother had put a West German magazine in her bed that reported on the occupation of Czechoslovakia, so they didn't find it. But otherwise, the search report survived. Well, when they left, I was coming from school without knowing anything, so I still greeted the gentlemen politely, which I was sorry I shouldn't have greeted them afterwards, but... In short, my father was arrested, they did the search, and I didn't find out until I got home from school what had happened."

"In 1969 there were big riots here, even shootings. The boy, [Stanislav] Valehrach and Dana Muzikářová were shot. That's what I heard until I got here. I was in the garden and the house confidante, who had four children - they were Seventh-day Adventists, but very decent people, and the lady was the house confidante and she said to me, 'Peter, don't go anywhere, there are shootings in the town!' And I really heard the shooting in our garden at Antonín Slavík, it was shooting somewhere in the centre of the city and the shooting could be heard all the way to us. But that was August 1969, that was the protests against the occupation and the clash between our police and our army and the citizens."