Jiří Lejsek

"I remember it was spontaneous because it was in 1948. The enthusiasm of the people was real. Suddenly everything was possible. Everyone was practicing with joy. I remember that. Even me in those years I was excited to train there and to be able to show up at that Strahov. It was just the euphoria after the war. Suddenly, things could happen. And then the disappointment came."

"I was there in August 1968, we were on holiday in Poland by the sea, somewhere near Świnoujście. And there, while fishing, I met an engineer who told me to go home, that we wouldn't get home afterwards. He was right, on the 18th of August we went home and on the way we already saw soldiers somewhere. Immediately afterwards I became chairman of the civic committee in Haratice. Together with the chairman from Plavy, we put together a radio station so that we could inform the people. There I suddenly started a political era. I got into the municipal office as a councillor. But in 1969, normalization came and I didn't agree with what was happening. For example, they wanted to erase from the chronicle what the chronicler had written, so I opposed it. I got a thank you, a book, a letter, and my political career was over."