Josef Lazárek

"But we knew that very well. Claiming that we did not is complete nonsense. We were all well aware of the problems with ionizing radiation, gamma, alpha, of the whole spectrum. We were screened, monitored; it was measured regularly. I think that our norms - even those back in the days - were among the strictest in the world, and were strictly adhered to. Thus, saying that it was not known would mean lying.“

"The environment there seemed to me as being extremely benevolent toward others. There were many different people. Maybe it was because the work was for everyone, yet not everyone would start working there. That job was perceived as being highly reprehensible by some people. 'Working in the uranium mines - You must have committed something.' You could not have been a friend of the regime. 'You would not be doing that otherwise.‘ I used to come across with that in Brno quite often, a neighbor saying: 'How comes that you work in the uranium mines? What have you done?‘ We were neither friends nor full-fledged enemies with the regime. Yet, it was putting us together; we used to be there in quite a different environment. There were people after serving a sentence, and there were many others. As Mr. Ludvík used to say, and I completely identify with that - there was no bastard in the mines that would last longer than a year. Humanly - a bastard.“