Rudolf Bill

"I learned that later when I left school. I was in a class that could come out of eighth [grade] and not have to go to ninth. My father said there would be no communists after a year. At that time they were listening to Free Europe and there was always hope that it would end. So I went to the ninth grade and we were waiting for something to happen. It didn't happen. The problem was that you could get anywhere from the eight, but suddenly the eight and the nine were coming out. I was interested in going to food school in Pardubice. When I went there with my mother, she said she had a friend there named Jirka. Then she cried. This Jirka said I had the number one hundred and thirty and only seventy would get in. And the blessing that came from Roznov was not in my favour. I was the son of a tradesman. I could have been the best pupil, the problem was set like that. They got in with worse grades, the main one was working-class background. I didn't have a working-class background."

"February 1948 was crazy. We were in the courtyard, and Trčka the butcher came in and said, 'Rudo, that Gottwald guy said they'd only take it away from the bigger ones, not from us tradesmen.' Dad was telling him to go to hell, he wasn't going to listen. I know there was even a bad word spoken at that time. Then the butcher came and said, 'You were right, man.' I heard that as a kid. And then we found out we were going to have to get a lodger. And then that we weren't the landlord anymore, that we'd be renting, too."