Jana Dědečková

'I completed my apprenticeship and got a certificate as an electrician while being a mother-of-two and I left to Semily in 1979. My husband had died and I stayed alone with my children. A year before, in 1978 my mother had passed away and as all my three sisters lived in the Krkonoše Mountains, I decided to follow them to Semily to get closer. I applied for a position as an electrician in the local Apartment Management Company in Semily and I got a flat there.' ' That's very unusual – a female electrician – ' 'Well, not in the Ostrava Region, women did all sorts of job there. I could also weld and for some time, I was working as a crane operator. It was unusual in Semily, though. When I came there, everyone was surprised that a woman was working as an electrician.'

'They were examining us thoroughly. I had to strip completely naked at the interrogation. There were only two women arrested, the rest of the arrested were men. They kept us locked in that garage. I was instructed about what to do by Mr. Benda, so I asked for water and food after 4 hours and I was waiting for the very end. Everyone had been interrogated and I was - as a punishment maybe – interrogated as the very last one. First there was a personal check and then the interrogating officer asked me what we had been doing in Prague. I said: 'Why do you make such a fuss over it, Prague is already filled with Trabant cars?' And they said everything must have rules. I wondered what rules can revolution have when it is mainly spontaneous. We made plans with the other protestors to meet again on the 10th of December, on the Human Rights Day, at a demonstration and the revolution preceded us a little when it happened on November 17.'

The political officer who lived in our block of flats met me at the first demonstration and said he would sort us out when the events are over. Of course I was scared. I was always scared. I feared they could take my children away, or take revenge on them. I was also scared they would shut me up. They would say I am a saboteur which was surely easy to do. There was a colleague from the Kolora factory and this one was a mad communist. He attended school with me and started informing on me. He would always say: 'You have four children so they will not put you in prison, I have tried many times myself.' This made me a little stronger. On the other hand, if you are threatened by police they will teach you a lesson when things calm down -- To be honest, I didn´t even believe things could calm down – not after the first demonstration. The Berlin Wall was about to be torn down and the people of our republic were among the last ones to go out into the streets. We were blocked by the Trabant Cars of the German fugitives. In that time I was not as scared as much as before.'

'Unfortunately, in October we found ourselves at the Europe Hotel where they picked people up in a snap and they arrested both of us – me and my husband. Later newspapers reported there was an aggressive group at the Europe Hotel which was not true at all. While the boys in helmets were standing near the hotel, we were trying to persuade them to be with us and told them they were going against the people. They were just standing and almost crying. Then came the order and they started arresting those in the first rows. They loaded us on a bus but we had fun in there. We knew many people from other demonstrations. They brought us to the police station in Mělník and they dropped us off in a garage where we waited for the interrogations. They let us go at 2 or 3 a.m. It was too late for a bus or train, we couldn´t phone either and it was quite chilly that October 28. So there we were at night in a town we didn´t know and we couldn´t even tell anyone where we were. At home, our 17-year-old daughter was with the little children. In the end, we called from a family house and our nephew from Prague drove to get us. He also let our children know in Semily that we had been arrested and said they didn´t need to worry and that we were on our way home.'

'Unfortunately, there was nothing happening in Semily. Friday, Saturday, Monday passed and nothing was happening yet. So I said we had to do something. At nights we went to get materials from Mr. Benda and to the film faculty and we arranged things with the boys, the Matěch brothers, Mr. Šlapák and some other boys from the faculty. When I was studying evening classes, they used to come to us and together we watched the TV news. At nights I was printing invitations for the Civil Forum meetings. We handed them out in Semily then. A police car was following us and they managed to remove some of the posters. I think it was Tuesday when we invited people for the first demonstration. Me and my husband, we liked to provoke so on November 23 we went to the Communist Party headquarters and declared we would organize a demonstration in the square where we had invited people to come and express their opinions about the actions in Prague. They said no and told us none of them would take to the street. We announced the demonstration for 6 pm and I had prepared a speech. It was terrible, I didn't know what to say! But meanwhile three student speakers appeared there. What was great, was the fact that when we came to the square, there were already some people and the sound system was installed. The local band Petr Hybsman and Comp. didn't know who the organizer was or anything, but they had installed the sound system. I was shocked! Well, the first demonstration was a bit of an embarrassment. But as there were students speaking - and not just me - the people started to react. At the end I asked them if they were coming tomorrow again and they agreed; so we started to prepare another one.'