Marie Čondlová

“The mood was still great, fantastic, when we stood before the gate, the Victory Gate, or how it was called. Chief Provazníková gave us a speech, we were lined up before the performance, it was as if she was saying goodbye. Then she left the country. The atmosphere was amazing, even just the parade through Prague itself. The Communists had seized the place by then. The bigwigs around President Gottwald were there, we marched by, and we all put our heads to the side instead of greeting him and waving. Former president Beneš, who’d abdicated, was behind him, and we shouted: ‘Long live Beneš!’ It was a roar...”

“My classmate from Master School of Cabinetmaking came along, he opened the gate to the driveway; he was surprised to see me there. There were three of them, they said they were coming to nationalise the company, Reindl - where was my father? Dad came downstairs, we called up all the workers, and they were told: ‘Comrades, from now on this will be yours, this man has no say here.’ We wrote reports on where the stock was, what was in the loft, what all my father had forgotten to declare. It took a few hours, we left, handed over the keys, and that was that. Then we had a meeting of the factory worker’s union, we discussed what to do with the master, my father. What could be done with the boss: ‘Oh well, let’s hang him.’ The workers said: ‘What are saying? We were glad we could work here, and you want to hang him?’”