“In Vítkovice I finally got to an interview. The HR manager told me they had no vacancy for an engineer now. Then he looked at me and asked if I was from a block of flats or family house. I admitted I lived in a family house. He said that I could probably work with my hands, and offered me a crane operator´s job instead: 'Then you could work with a crane and there might be a vacancy in the office later.' I came home and cried. I did not know what to do. I could not be unemployed because I would be a haven on the socialist system. So my dad employed me in a drugstore as a shop assistant.”
“I did not read the school report until later when I asked for it for the purposes of my employment. They wrote that my family did not take my brother's death as a family tragedy, but as a political act. It was also stated that parents regularly attend church mass. The conclusion was that although I have all the prerequisites, they do not recommend me to study.”
“He (brother) was very sad. And he explained to our people how beautiful people are in Prague now, how they all rebelled, and how all of a sudden everything was different. He spoke about how he had met the theologian Olda Vít there, and that everything spoke to him. He described how people carried tea for them and how they looked after them. They brought him even warmer shoes, because perhaps he came wearing only moccasins. They also brought sweaters. He was thrilled by the atmosphere.”
“In the beginning, all people showed us solidarity and treated us nicely. Normalization then began to gain momentum and solidarity disappeared on certain parts. Parents have noticed that some people who used to come to us and show us support are starting to cool down and some have turned away completely. It wasn't so that everyone was completely rejected us, there were still enough sympathizers and people we knew were solidary with us. But some just got scared. They were afraid of what would happen if they were meeting people like us. Even one person came up with the fact that he was at the funeral, that he was in the pictures, and that he wanted us to give him the pictures so that he wouldn't appear anywhere. That was way too much for my parents.”
“I was preparing to go to school. Suddenly strangers appeared and wanted to talk to the parents. I woke up my brother and he sent me to school to get the mother. So I went to her and told her to go home because there were some people from Prague who needed to talk to her about Honza. My mom sent me for my dad so I ran to the store. When I ran around and got back home, I was pushed out into the hallway and they locked themselves in the kitchen. Then I just heard my mother scream. And then they opened the door and told me.”
Marta Janasová, née Zajícová, was born on 6 June 1955 in Vítkov. Her older brother Jan burned himself on Wenceslas Square in Prague on 25 February 1969. His deed followed the example of Jan Palach. As a living torch number two, he wanted to rouse people from resignation after the occupation of Warsaw Pact troops. The surviving family was bullied, the father was expelled from the Communist Party, the mother was expelled from the field of education. Marta was forbidden to study at universities for political reasons. After graduation she worked in a pharmacy. In the end, the family managed to persue her admission to the Metallurgical Faculty of the Mining University in Ostrava. After graduating in economics of management and metallurgy iron she could not get a job. She briefly worked as a shop assistant in a drugstore. Then she worked at the Research Institute of Iron Metallurgy in Dobrá. After 1989 she worked for the Czechoslovak Commercial Bank. Until retiring she managed her branch in Opava. He lives in Ostrava.
