Tomáš Mitáček

"I faced the greatest psychological pressure when I participated in Palach's week in Prague. And it was about 1988 [in 1989]. We walked through the cordon and we were supposed to enter the Old Town Square from a certain street (not Melantrichova). I was not quite in the first rows, but probably in the tenth or fifteenth row, but you could see that there were armored personnel carriers standing on the Old Town square, they had water cannons and they were mowing down the first rows. When I drove home, I spent another week wondering if there was any point in being in the world. That all is lost if such repression can work against own people. That's how it affected me.'

"I only experienced the absurdity of that system in the secondary grammar school. As a pioneer, one was supposed to move on and become a member of the Czechoslovak Socialist Youth Union. At that time, I had it in my head that I refused to become the member. After that, my classmate came and she explained it to me absolutely clearly. She said something to the effect of, 'Fuck what it means to you, at the end of the day it's about getting a book like the member with your name on it and paying membership fees once a year and sticking two stamps in there. And if you don't agree to it, then you can immediately go to the principal's office and terminate your studies at this secondary grammar school, because without it no one will function here.' I did not take it as a threat on her part, but as a statement, because she herself was in the Communist Party. And over time I understood that she was there so that she could protect us."