Marta Laudátová

“Thinking back, I realise I really have to be immensely grateful to my mum and grandma who raised us. First, they did not foster any hate in us towards anyone. We prayed for dad every day, we had is image and mum would always tell us, reassure us that dad did nothing wrong, that he was innocent even though he was in prison. But we saw that the family, a certain part of the family, did not see it that way. ‘If he did not do anything he would not be in prison!’ So we got to see the other side too.” – “On a practical level, or a personal level, you as a child must have missed dad.” – “Luckily, we had uncles who tried to help us, substitute dad and help mum. When she had to go to somewhere, like to court, there was always an aunt or an uncle to go with her. We had a field, we grew potatoes and crops, and we had chickens, a goat and a pig; we tried to be self-sufficient. My grandma was very energetic and clever. My mum had to suffer through it and grandma encouraged us with her energy.”

“When I was home with my children the 1980s felt awful. To me it was like... no outlook, no light at the end of the tunnel. I would ask, ‘What will become of us?’ Everybody had a lot to worry about, little children, so we did not meet much – maybe once during Christmas. We did not watch the news, we didn’t even own a TV set. My parents watched TV, for example Austrian TV, and they would tell us something. With all those worries, we didn’t really... well those times felt like a burden.”