Otakar Mika

"My father-in-law was a communist, a stationmaster from the Highlands, an impeccable man. He was in the party and before we decided to get married I wrote to him about signing the Charter. He wrote me a letter telling me that it was my business and if I stood by it, he understood. Coming from him, I have to say... a normal father-in-law would have talked his daughter out of it."

"Suddenly, I'm supposed to fix the doctor's sink. I went in there and the doctor was very unpleasant, she looked old, she had a very prominent nose. I found that the sink was draining and there was nothing there. She was talking dirty: 'Well, fuck it! Sit down. What did you have to do with the union in that meeting?' That's how she talked to me. - 'Look, Doctor, it's my business.' - 'It's not your business, watch them, they're bastards. They'll ruin your life, you've got to watch out. If you need anything, just ask and I'll help you.' I found out she was an old International Brigades volunteer from Spain, a communist really. She hated them, those normalising communists. They couldn't get at her because she was a doctor, but she had a wrinkle too. Then she called me about six months later. I came in, there was a guy sitting there, hair back. She said to me, 'Do you know this guy?' - 'Excuse me, sir, I don't know you, and I don't know why I have to confirm whether I know someone or not. She said, 'That's Franta Kriegl, he was in Spain too.' She was a medic and he was already a doctor. He used to go to see her, there were people like that in the mine during the normalisation period. Kriegl, who didn't sign in Moscow. And I was dragged into it because she thought that the young people were keeping their mouths shut, and suddenly there was somebody... I was lucky to have met such people."

"State Security had been monitoring this for some time, and Dr [Habáň] was trying to recruit young priests into the Dominican Order. There were also a lot of State Security officers, spies and informers in the Church. The Church was divided into those who had lost hope of any social change and joined Pacem in Terris. Then there was the other group that resisted. I was there and it was a painful thing for me. It was around lunchtime, it was cooking, there were about ten Dominicans, they were dressed in Dominican vestments. And Dominic Duka was there, if I'm not mistaken. Suddenly the bell rang. Chlum is a place of pilgrimage, the front of the church and then the ambulatory and it had to be opened. As a young boy I was sent to open it. Six or seven guys stood there, pushed me away and went in. They were State Security officers, a kind of commando. But I have to say that despite all the interrogations I went through at the State Security Sokolov and Cheb, I never experienced any harsh attack except for stupid things. Then I learned that an State Security policeman or a policeman from Plesná, who was in charge of me, confessed to me that he was paid 200 crowns for keeping an eye on me. I didn't want to believe him, I told him, 'Order a drink and we'll forget about it.'"