Marta Skalická

"First, the Sokol members, I was still small or just a child, so I didn't perceive it that way, they got a gym, it was the German Turnhalle. And the Sokols before and during the first republic, even though it was the first republic, here in Jablonec at first there were about eight percent of the Czech population. Then during the first republic maybe a little more, but still the Sokols didn't have their own gym, they trained up here in Revoluční Street, where the National House was. That was a Czech house. And Czechs also met there in other such groups, not only for exercise, but it was also a patriotic association. Even the Sokol was a patriotic association. And after the war, they got a replacement for that Czech house, because they couldn't go back there anymore, there were machines for the production of electrical components, so they got a Sokol gym here as a replacement. But in 1948, a different system of physical education was launched, it was the unification of physical education. And in 1950, Sokol was completely banned."