Ivana Königsmarková

“Well, and I went to Bartholomew Street [the location of the State Security headquarters - trans.], and forty-something in a brown suit and yellow shirt came to pick me up, and he took me through the entrance and across the courtyard, he unlocked a door that looked like it was to some flat, he opened it for me and said ‘please’, and there was a steep flight of steps in front of me, narrow as would fit one person, and leading to another door. I went in and he locked up behind us, upstairs he unlocked the door and said ‘please’, and then he locked it behind us again. Upstairs there was something of a landing, from which two corridors led in opposite directions, each with a number of doors, and we went to those right at the end. So I was getting a bit stressed out from that, but then when I saw the folder lying on the table, which was labelled with my friend’s name, I was relieved because I finally knew what this was about. And then I just sailed through it all, or at least I didn’t admit otherwise. It was hard, I kind of made use of the situation I had at the time - because shortly before that I had given birth prematurely, and my baby had died a week later. They wanted to know the circumstances of the flat exchange, that we surely must have known about [the emigration] and that we must have paid them for it, and I told them I didn’t know anything about it, that I had enough worries of my own and that my husband had organised everything so that I wouldn’t suffer so much.”