Adriena Morávková

“I was supposed to take my daughter to hospital with adenoids, it was on 21 August exactly, and when I heard the radio, I said: ‘No, I’m not going anywhere, I’m scared. I have no idea of what can happen.’ So, we didn’t go. My sister [Aglaia] came over; she had been to a friend’s chalet near the town. They came here, sat with us, stayed for a few days discussing everything, and they eventually decided to leave. A theatre director [Alfréd Radok] was there [in Sweden], and he asked for her husband to come over. He was a set designer and Radok wanted to work with him because he liked his approach. They said, let’s go for a year and see what happens. Then the year passed by, they prolonged their stay, and eventually stayed for good because it had become pointless here by then.”

“It was okay; he still worked. He did mainly repair jobs until 1959 when they arrested him. He simply didn’t come back home one day; nobody told us anything. We knew nothing; he didn’t come home for two days. I don’t know how mum learned about it. They just looted the shop, took anything they could; I have a list of what was taken away. There was a rare clock that struck every fifteen minutes; I eventually saw it in court where the communists submitted it. Jewels – we saw some of them worn by certain communist women. Those were our family jewels; they took all that from our home. I was in Prague at the time, so I didn’t witness it; they browsed my diary, and I was rather humiliated when I learned about it later on. They took everything – the car and the house, and arrested dad.”