Bohuslav Hofman

"And once they caught my brother on the street, threw him into a car and took him somewhere to an apartment, where they beat him up. He was almost fourteen years old at the time and they told him: 'If you get involved in politics, we will kill your brothers, parents and you too.' He came home back then, he was beaten, not saying anything to anyone at home. And I say: 'Please tell me which boys beat you up, I'll beat them up too.' And he said that some boys beat him up. Well, I was asking him questions, but no response. About a month later, he admitted to me that he was beaten up by adults, that he shouldn't get involved in politics and shouldn't oppose the class teacher. My brother Jiří was in Pionýr, by the way, he joined, I didn't. Well, we never told our parents. He told me not to tell anyone. And I felt, because a person felt it, that the time was really bad and that one had to hide something all their life. So, I never said it, and since then my brother has had, you might say, that manic depressive nature.'

"I want to say this: when in the eighth year, by the way, I had only A grades at the end, in the half term I had only two B grades, so the teacher gave me an envelope and said, 'Bohouši, promise me, you can't throw it away.' I took the envelope and I said, 'Well, teacher, I promise I won't throw it away.' I opened it at home and I saw that there was (I also have it with me here) the Czechoslovak Union of Youth ID, filled in with her [the teacher's] handwriting and signed by the teacher (my name, but she signed it) And I didn't throw it away, and when I came to the Agricultural and Technical school in Brandýs in September, I was suddenly taken aback - they were all in the Czechoslovak Union of Youth. Well, I gave the ID card that was given to me, because the teacher knew that they would not accept me to the school, that they would fire me from school, because everyone had to be in the Czechoslovak Union of Youth. So, I gave it to them and I paid some contributions."