Antonín Plachý

"Pastor Adolf Petr was an active man and bought a house in Travná, a secluded village on the border with Poland, where young people began to meet. And they were not small meetings. People from abroad also began to commute there, and surprisingly, Germans from East and West Germany met there. For example, five young Germans arrived and worked there with us on summer jobs. I started going there from about 1970. I was one of the youngest participants in the summer jobs. We met those Germans there and not only evangelicals from all over the republic went there. The activity was such that part of the people worked in the house, they tried to improve it so it would be suitable for living, and the other part did summer jobs for example in an agricultural cooperative or in the forest. They made money, which then were used for the reconstruction of the house. At that time, it was still possible like this in Javorník."

"I experienced the biggest break in 1968. I was 12 years old and we were with my parents on holidays at the cottage of the parish priest Veselý in Holčovice. Mom woke up and told us about the dream she had. She lay on her back in that dream, her mouth open and paratroopers were jumping into her mouth. There was a lot of fun in the family because of that. We had a great time until Dad turned on the transistor radio from which we heard about the occupation. Mom cried. People in the village started running to the store to buy food because they were afraid there would be a war and nothing to eat. The atmosphere was terrible. I realized that something terrible had happened, something I only knew from a story-telling about wartime when Germany attacked us."