František Hroník

“I was active. I laugh about it now, but it was risky business. Everyone was to hide in the shelter, and I would sit in the headmaster’s office, and if a bomb blew up nearby, I’d inform the police headquarters about it. I sat there, and something really did land on the other side of the river. I phoned to the police headquarters. No one answered. I phoned again about five minutes later. I understood on my way back. The police headquarters was in ruins. During the bombing, one of the professors came to get me because it was really very depressing. When we walked down the stairs to the shelter together, the stairs shook. It was an unpleasant feeling. Then of course, all the wires were broken and there was no transportation. I walked. There was a huge crater in front of the Grand Hotel by the main train station in Brno, but the Grand was unaffected by the blast. The Germans had things organised. They had cards at the post office with the pre-printed message: ‘I am alive and well.’ You could send that to your relatives. I sent that card from the Lužánek post office to Choceň. You could add a personal note, but it was emphasised that you mustn’t write something like that it was terrible etc. So that’s my memory of the greatest bombing of Brno, which I really did witness.”

“Back then I started getting into more trouble. Because I had also made several enthusiastic speeches in support of Dubček and the new leadership. There had even been an extraordinary meeting of the Communists of the whole military academy, where I had spoken harshly of the old leadership and in favour of Dubček. I remember the year ’68 very clearly, the arrival of the Soviets, because on 21 August they seized our barracks in Černé Pole as well. We came to work in the morning - we knew from the radio about what was going on. There were Russian guards at the gates, looking for Western soldiers. We told them there weren’t any Western soldiers here. You could really feel the resistance of the people to begin with, people were very open about the fact that they were occupants and that we just wanted to manage things ourselves. Then they started getting things under control - like that Palach, for instance, because although he caused a big stir, both here and around the world, it did nothing to change the course we were headed for. I’m not judging the fact that he changed nothing, his sacrifice was big and meaningful, but from a practical perspective, Czechoslovakia carried on towards Sovietisation, the rule of the Soviets.”