Vladimír Hokr

"We didn´t really notice the propaganda because it was everywhere around us and it was permanent. We were only kids and we didn´t know anything else. We just took it as a source of information, someone followed it more, someone less. I remember events we attended as kids. There were peace festivities that took place in Nové Hrady, and my mother, as the head of culture, organized it. We heard someone speaking into the microphone at the beginning of the event but we hardly paid attention. We were looking forward to the singers, competitions and market stands. I can tell you about May Day, I remember some people standing on the stage with a carp: 'Fishermen greet 1st May' and all these things, it was a must, but it wasn´t aggressive, we just took it as an activity. Perhaps - being kids - we didn't even realize the meaning.

We went to Weitra, from Weitra we went to Harbach, from Harbach to Mandelstein. And there, from the viewpoint, which is today a famous tourist place, we looked back. And there I saw for the first time the place, that I learnt about at school, where meetings of the expelled Germans (I don´t want to call then Sudeten Germans because I don´t like this title) have taken place. People, who were bond with this region, have met up at this place. And I remember that at school and in general they kept telling us: 'Up there the fires are burning, it is the Germans, they are the bad ones, they are the ones who caused the war, and they keep yelling: We´ll be back! 'And we were frightened back then. It was strange that we came to see this place. Then we went back home the same way through the Weitra. We arrived frozen. And I know it was one of those moments when my dad was happy we had a chance to see it. I also felt his fear that borders would close again and that we wouldn´t be able to go there again. I know my dad enjoyed this trip."