Pavel Šindelář

"Then, when the Russians came and what was happening, I said to myself, 'It won't be good here, I'm leaving.' So I decided to go in June 1969 and took the train to Austria. So it was a big milestone in my life that got me to emigrate and stay in Australia. I did not go to Australia yet, I went to Vienna, where I went immediately to the Australian embassy, because the Australian government was taking a lot of emigrants from Czechoslovakia at that time, because we were partly considered political refugees. I crossed the border legally on my passport and exit clause, which had to be at the time. And I only went for four days, so I couldn't take a lot of things with me, nothing, just for four days, what do you need, right? So I took the most necessary things and took a few of my favorite books."

"There was a bit of a tension to take pictures of Russian soldiers. A rather unpleasant thing happened to me, as a Soviet soldier standing in the tank was photographed there, waving at me because he heard the camera click. Because when you take a picture, it clicks. It clicked then, not now digital. So when he heard that, he turned around and said, 'Give me the camera, give me the camera, I want the camera.' And I refused to do that and turned around leaving slowly. I can tell you I felt every inch of my back if I get the bullet or not. Fortunately, I didn't get shot, I mingled with the people. Well, just to calm down, after I started to shake, I went to the first restaurant or pub and had a few beers to recover and shake it off.”