Jiřina (Georgia) Stredňanská

“I was here once in 1987, in Piešťany. I needed a spa therapy because of my legs. I sent my application through some kind of agency, it got approved and I got visa. At first I went to Prague, where I stayed at my husband´s sister and then I traveled to Bratislava and Piešťany. However, there I found out that I was missing my exit visa permit. I tried to think how it was possible, but then I let it go. On the second day, the State Security (ŠtB) was there. They locked me in my room, I was not allowed to talk to anyone and they insisted on my collaboration with them. I endured; I still wanted them to call the American consulate. They refused until I´d tell them this and that… I said: 'Why are you asking me this? I know you already know it all.' And they did. At the beginning one Slovak came and kept asking me what I did in America. I didn´t want to tell him I taught at this school, because it was a threat for them, of course. So I said I was teaching Czech language. 'Excuse me, but who learns Czech over there?' he asked. I said: 'Oh, you´d be surprised.' I tried to avoid it as I could, but at last he told me, 'Look, I know where you teach!' 'For God´s sake, why do you keep asking me then?' And he continued to ask me all kinds of crap, so I just answered him: 'Look, I´m not going to answer to these questions, because I don´t know, I don´t care, so let me be.' This way I came in for a nervous shock and my doctor had to treat me with Valium. She was very nice, the doctor I mean, and I told her what happened. My exit visa permit was still missing, however. 'You cannot leave without your exit visa permit.' I told them: 'How come I cannot leave? I have an American passport; I can leave without the permit, although I´d like to have it.' 'We won´t let you go without it.' It was truly a problem. They ordered me to come to the police headquarters one day before my flight. I was afraid they really wouldn´t let me leave. That guy took me to see the police commander. I was so scared they´d arrest me, I couldn´t believe it; I had great fear. Well, the police commander accepted me. By the window there was that ŠtB member, and they even called a Czech and one more man to deal with me. There were two of them. Oh, they began their interrogation by saying something like: 'What a pretty chick you are, shouldn´t we rather go to a bar or so?' … It was horrible, I felt awful. I don´t even know how many hours I spent there in a nervous wreck. And if my nerves are shot to hell, those men have surely a great merit on that, although I don´t know their names. The police commander spoke to me: 'Mrs. Strednanská, we have your exit visa permit, of course, here it is.' And I saw how he hated that man standing over there. That one didn´t say a word. He probably said all he needed when he locked me in my hotel room before. This police commander was very obliging, 'If you need anything, call me and I will be pleased to help you. Have a safe journey.' And I left, although, I couldn´t believe I was allowed to go.”

“I was asleep during the night of August 21st. Some kind of roar woke me up. I went to see, what´s happening and I saw one neighbor walking and screaming to me, 'Russians are here!' I wondered, 'Oh gosh, what Russians, what´s going on?!' I woke Ernest up and I said: 'Please, some Russians are here, many army tanks, what´s happening? Somebody in Vienna spoke the truth when he said something was going on.' Ernest called the radio and television dispatching immediately where they told us they didn´t know anything as well. Nobody knew what was going on. When we tried to call a while later, the telephone was busy and we didn´t get hold of anyone. Then Eva Poláková came, and another colleague of ours; we sat together and listened to the Free Europe. Although, we couldn´t hear it well as it was still being interrupted. So we didn´t find out much more from there anyway. And those army tanks went on and on and on, it was never ending line of tanks. I lamented where could they all go? A new day dawned. We drank a bottle of cognac during the night, there were four of us, so we handled it. In the morning we saw cannons all around our apartment house where we lived, in the middle of Bratislava. They pointed directly at us. It was terrible, the fear. That night I decided not to stay there anymore. I didn´t want my kids to have the same problems I had to face. I wanted my children to grow up in a free world, where they could do what they really wanted. Although, I didn´t know how would it all end up. My husband didn´t want to go. He held back, because he was afraid. I could speak the language, I spoke German, but he didn´t. I partially saw why he hesitated; today I understand even more. Although back then his attitude didn´t make a sense to me. I told him, 'Well, I shall go with the kids and you can stay…' I blackmailed him, really awfully, so we left.'”