Otto Šplíchal

“I have to boast that from the second year on, I was a captain, and from the third year I was the after-school [captain], who had considerable authority. We received wages from the start, there were yearbooks, where every payment was written out - for accommodation, for board, some money was set aside for clothes, to save up enough... And according to the behaviour of the individual members of the room, the captain decided whether to give each of them ten or five crowns of weekly pocket money - wages were weekly back then. And the after-school [captain] was the right hand of the carer, he directed the other captains. Every evening they’d visit each of the rooms and check under the beds if the shoes were polished.”

“It was a big air raid. At the time, in 1944, when the Americans started flying in from Italy, they often flew over Zlín, so the alarm went off a dozen times a week. We always ran through the factory and out, generally towards the forest. And on that twentieth, I don’t know why, there was a tunnel shelter built into the hillside along the road to Březnice, quite long it was. It must have fit about 500 people I reckon, I’m not sure, but there was a lot of us there. And that day was the first and last time I hid in that shelter, and it happened to be the day of the air raid. We heard it, it wasn’t far from the factory, so we knew there was trouble. We were stuck there from about ten to three before we could leave. And the air there wasn’t exactly the best. And the view, when we climbed out, was pretty dismal, because the factory really did suffer a beating... It’s recorded on film as well, it was mainly the raw material warehouses that burned.”

“One of my colleagues, who headed the department at school, fled to America with his wife and children. We went to visit them in Vienna, I took their car back. We flew to Vienna, you could still do that, it was the year 68, 69. It was still possible back then. Then they became American citizens, and they visited here while the Communists were still in power. Why am I saying it. He built himself up in America as a realtor, after some pretty tough beginnings. He built himself up enormously. And back then after 93, they came to visit again, and they invited us to Vienna, and he indicated that they would invite us to America. I took it with a pinch of salt. Nonetheless, in 94 they sent an invitation, and they paid for the whole journey and for a month’s stay. That was a big event, which I wouldn’t have managed to pull off on normally.”