Mikuláš Stehlík

“As boys we naturally went to see the arrival of Russian tanks but we definitely did not welcome them. I was fed up with the Soviets during my life in Ukraine. It was terrible for us and my mother cried. After August 21, people threw stones into our windows. The hatred towards the East was very strong in the society, despite the fact that we felt the same, perhaps even more strongly.”

“Because of one working Saturday [he is a member of the Adventist Church which observe Saturdays as a holiday] I got to the camp interrogator, who shouted at me and threatened me that I would not get out of the prison. I replied, ‘Very well, officer, if God permits, I may even die in prison but if he doesn’t there is nothing you can do about it. You have absolutely no influence on it.’ There was a cabinet in the room and he had a knife in it which he seized from the prisoners. He played with it for a while, then came up to me, put the knife against my chest and said, ‘If I stab you, no one will give a damn. I will say that it was in self-defence and will get promoted.’ I looked him in the eye and said, ‘You are perfectly right. If my God permits, I will die here.’”