Marie Selicharová

“At the time, when the events in Bohemia took place, I was pregnant, so I stayed home. But I was aware, that there were dežurstva in Jednotě – all day service, from the morning till the next morning, journalists switched to monitor everything, what was happening in Bohemia in 1968. Even in two issued of Jednota there was an attachment with information for Czech tourists on where to go and who to turn to here in Yugoslavia, who can help them in Croatia to get back home, to stay until they could do so. Unfortunately nothing remained until today. Not a single issue from that time, where you could read what kind of info we in Jednota provided to tourists. It was sent to Sibenik, Rijeka, Split, Zadar, to all the places where most Czech tourists went to help them out. Back in 1990s I just could not believe something like that would happen. I could not believe, that a neighbour I used to come for a coffee together, who used to visit me and vice versa and I helped them to prepare their son´s wedding, she left this morning; they bought bread in the shop, each one had a loaf under their armpit and as I went to work, they´d shout at me: ‚Komšinka, doviđenja!‘ (Good-bye, neighbour!) I had my eyes wide open wondering what was going on. When I returned back home, they were not there, their houses closed and in the evening there was an attack on Daruvar. I can never forgive them that.”

“Former director of Končenice school, Mr. Souček, once stopped me riding my bike to Sokolovec and said: ‚Look girl, you wrote to Koutek and Jednota, you can write well, they need journalists in in Jednota.‘ I was surprised and said: ‚Journalist? Me? Well I don’t know anything about it. How could I be a journalist?‘ ‚Well you should apply and see. If you are no good at it, you can seek a job elsewhere.‘ So I signed up, wrote my application, he even helped me with the formal side. I wrote it down and got to Jednota for a two-year trial period. If I am good at it, if I manage, I would stay. A former association deputy called me then (Czechoslovak association) Vlado Daněk, a photo editor of Jednota, after two years and told me: ‚We threw you in the river and you learnt to swim.‘ I asked what that means with my eyes wide open with surprise? Then I thought about it, a-ha, so that means I got the job. And I kept doing it for forty two years.”