Emilie Šťastná

“And on the morning of August 22nd, they were banging on our miniature tent, so I climbed out and said, 'What's going on?' And she shoved the radio at me. They had such a small transistor and she pushed the radio towards me and looked very scared. I kind of laughed. And my husband said, 'What's going on?' I say, 'Well, they're showing us the radio; I guess you think we don't know the transistor, yeah.' I was joking and I got out. And she started hugging me and started crying. And I was like, 'Well, what's going on?' And she kept pushing the radio to my ear. And there I heard: 'Prague. Russian occupation. Prague. Russian...' I said: 'Something is happening, get out. There's probably a war here.' Because we did not speak any English, we were nothing like... I was just talking to the Russians about Prague, there is probably fighting there. Let´s go.”

“And that's been an extremely, rather exciting and traumatic year for us. My husband and I met for the first time, we were not yet married, but we were both students. In the year 1968, it really was such a spring, as there was a great liberation period, suddenly one could simply travel a little to the West, which was practically impossible until then. They were... the atmosphere got more relaxed that after many years there was a Majáles again in Prague attended for example by the American beatnik poet Ginsberg. And it was really such a relaxed time, and we were expecting even better times to come.”