Hana Stehlíková

"The thinnest cows from the JZD were harnessed to a ladder truck, they put some... they showed it like in America. Or they carried banners from Tiba and had these allegorical wagons. It was a rich factory, so they had it embellished. I know there was always this stuffed guy in a top hat and an American flag strutting around. It was just ridiculous. It was just a joke. At that time from the Metalworks - I had to go in the parade, there was no way I was going - I went with a friend whose mother had been in a concentration camp during the war and her dad had died. We were carrying flags, and when the parade was over, what to do with the flag? So we put them in the hallway of a house that had seamstresses from our company. And then one of ours, as they were called... Such a horrible communist, but an idiot, I can't really say it any other way, found out and told my friend Andula, who's mother had been in a concentration camp for years, to move out then, that she could go to America if she dared to do that with the Russian flag."

"My father was imprisoned under the Communists, but not for long. He was insulted in a pub, he got drunk, they were playing cards with that bunch in Višňová. And he said that Stalin and Gottwald, he was president then, that they were murderers. And this good guy, his name was Zajíc, I can't remember now, a drunkard, denounced him. At that time there was still a court in Frýdlant, Judge Tajovský. So my father was convicted for that and went to Frýdlant prison. But the commander of the prison was a Russian legionnaire like our father. So I was able to visit him there and bring him lemons and fruit and clean linen. Then he was even rehabilitated." - "And how long was he in prison?" - "Just over two months. That judge Tajovsky could have sent him, I don't know where, but he was sentenced and went early. I'm sure it was also because there was no witness against him. All the guys who were investigated said they didn't hear anything. Only one."