Eva Žejdlíková

"When I was a kid, they were wonderful celebrations. Most of the time it was already warm in May. We wore white socks, we had pioneer scarves. And we enjoyed it because they were beautiful parades. The squares were full of people. And there was a parade with allegorical floats. Each factory had an allegorical float on which was painted what they produced. Then the workers and other allegorical floats went. It was really beautiful. There was joy, merriment everywhere. I remember that one year in May there was a celebration on the embankment in front of the school by the Syn Pond with the participation of the Greeks. They were studying at the gymnasium and there were a lot of them then. They wore beautiful costumes, played their music and danced on the waterfront. It was beautiful and we loved it. People were cheerful and always shouted, 'He who stands on the sidewalk does not love the Republic.'"

"In 1968, when the troops invaded us, we knew nothing in advance. We had our balconies connected, and our neighbor would bang on our window to wake us up and go see what was going on. We really didn't anticipate that that would happen. And when we went out on the balcony, we saw huge planes. What a noise! And they were flying so low that I thought maybe they were going to knock down our chimneys. That was not a nice moment when they attacked us, not really. Nobody liked that. But we went to work normally. After that I know people started buying things so that they would have a supply of flour and things like that in case something happened, so that they would have something to cook with. And I know that some protest against the occupation went to Pardubice. It was a document signed by the workers. But the Russian soldiers weren't even in Svratka. They were staying at the stadium. They were young boys who didn't even know where they were or why they were fighting. They thought maybe we were shooting here. They were completely stupid."