Jarmila Ježová

“They both just minded their own business. Grandpa would go to a Communist party meeting and grandma to Mass in Husice. They had a really nice marriage and every Communist meeting started with them asking when Mr. Kroupa was going to take down the crucifix above doors. After which Mr. Kroupa said that it wasn't his crucifix, that it was his wife's whom he respected and that he wouldn't take it down. So, every time there were some rewards, he had no chance of that. He would never get any. And then in 1968, when he saw that it was taking a whole different turn away from why he had joined the Party, he gave back his Party card. Because he was a really kind person.”

“When my mum got married, they applied for an apartment but they simply didn't get any. My father worked in the army and then at the Zetor company, hoping he would get an apartment from them but he was skillful and became a supervisor and so when they started giving out apartments to workers, he was left without any prospect yet again. And it was really bad at that point, because grandfather Kroupa, who had worked as a janitor, was retiring because he was sick and they passed my parents their one-room apartment in Francouzská street, my mother never got over that. And so my dad, despite the apartment being quite plain, had to leave his post at the ZKL where he had earned three times more than as he did as a janitor here.”