Bohdan Pivoňka

"How do you recognize conversion? Because something else is the effect where a person sees that something is simply happening to that person - but we do not see into the heart. And unfortunately, there have been a lot of such cases where they have been able to play conversions perfectly, for some purpose, of course. Maybe to gain some benefit. The pastor was so excited when he found out the convict had converted and brought some food, for example. Maybe cigarettes or something, so… and he was already kind, maybe he was already accessible to some of my other needs, when I converted so nicely. For example, in Valdice we found out in those early days that - I will not say which part of the church, it was one smaller church - the representatives of this church there were completely enthusiastic and brought food, and even someone brought a radio there - under certain conditions… Then another day the convict told us that when these convicts returned from the visit, they laughed at how well they… they made fools of them. And they even turned the cross upside down to a satanic position. So that's it. So it's not easy to tell if they… usually it’s not so effective. ”

"We did not have Russians there, there was a part of the Polish army with tanks. So it was a very unpleasant awakening on the morning of the 21st. A neighbor came, banged on the window – an old lady – and she said, 'Mr. parson, there will be a war! There's going to be a war!¨ So we turned on the radio and there was this broadcast, that is still played now in archive footage, that we were being occupied and that it was without knowledge of the government and the party. Well, there were Poles, I had such an opportunity for the first time to make a public decision when the principal, the head of the school in Svratouch, came and asked if we just… how to do it, the soldiers were thirsty and if we could give them a drink. And that people didn't want to give them a drink, because there were slogans at the time that they wanted nothing to do with the occupiers, people would turn around signs and so on, so that the soldiers would be confused and go elsewhere. So, I recommended that it's not human, that even the enemy deserves water. This was my first encounter with public service in Svratouch. "