Irena Eliášová

"My husband saved money to save me my first typewriter - Continental. He brought it to me for my birthday and said: 'Here you go and now you can write!' I was eager to write a book about our settlement. However, the family found out; most of all his brother and people at work, saying: 'Well, I need to have this and that written and don't know how to do it.' He said: 'You know, my sister-in-law has a typewriter. She will write it down for you.' This is how it all started. Acquaintances and family coming to our place. My husband was really angry about it. I used to write court appeals. They committed various crimes so they wanted me to write them requests. Once, I even asked for a pardon - and it was granted."

"1968. At that time, I was fifteen years old and did not understand politics. I didn't know what was happening but I could hear on the radio that we were being invaded: 'The Czechoslovak Radio is under siege.' My parents asked: 'Irenka, what is going on?' I was the eldest child. I said: 'I don't know what is going on. I don't understand it.' Our elders replied: 'There will be war.' We were afraid. Well, we... I wasn't. I was fifteen and didn't mind one bit. I was interested in completely different things. Frankly, I couldn't even grasp what it all meant. Not at all. I recall receiving letters from Slovakia immediately. Our cousins and aunts wrote to my father that the tanks passed through their village but nothing happened."