Zuzana Petrikova

"Well, Luboš and I, we were always quite active in the Czech society. For some years we danced the “Czech beseda“. Luboš has been playing in the Czech theatre for years. And I was in the Czech Association. We are always doing something. We used to have Czech dancing parties and another quite popular thing here was that since I was small, every year we have organized a Czech second hand sale. It started with collecting things that were sent to Austria to the camps for refugees. It started at the Krajinas´cellar, I remember that. We always met there, collected things and packed them up. After 1968, we started selling things. People came with something they didn´t need and others took it. Mainly the new refugees could get anything, even things for the kitchen. They cost a few cents only. Since I was very small I have worked there. Today, the sales still exist but they don´t sell clothing. People sell what they make themselves. The main thing is that you can buy soups there, something to eat, different cakes and people can meet up twice a year and they look forward to this event to see the people they haven´t seen for a long time. Czech books are sold there too, which is fine because everybody has lots of books and no idea what to do with them. So, they bring them to the sale, somebody buys them and the next year brings them back again. This is how Czech books change hands."

"In America yes, as he taught and published books there, even in English. But most importantly, his students from all over the world wrote to him. He loved writing back to them. He knew, I guess, 13 languages, he read everything in original. In Greek, Italian, German. I have a few of his books into which he used to write what he thought was wrong. He wrote to all the books, and always read something. So, I guess he was quite well-known here too. True, not so much as in Bohemia but his former students liked to remember him and even today we hear from them. Maybe it´s important that when grandad was running away from Bohemia, he didn´t want to, but they came to tell him that the next day he would be in prison. So, he took a small suitcase, and they were taken across the border. They walked across the Šumava Mts. And later they always spoke about how terrible the journey was. And granny in her dress and town shoes with heeels walked like this across the border. It was interesting that some 10 years ago my grandad got a letter from a son of the man who took them to Germany. He published a book about this. There is one whole chapter about the way across the border with our grandad and granny. It´s very interesting what these people did to help and save others because their own life must have been in danger too. My grandad always said:“ Well, I have left everything there.“ Because he left all his books and the house behind, yet that he was happy as he saved his life and could have children and grandchildren around. That in fact one life finished and another life started."