Marcela Ulrichová

"My uncle and aunt were still alive, and they said that a German family came to the house they had now, which originally belonged to the German family, and they were glad to see how everything had been remodeled. They didn't feel any resentment at all. Most of the Germans from there had not gone to East Germany but to West Germany, and they were doing well there. My uncle said they were outright impressed with how they maintained and repaired the house. The houses and villas that the Germans left were indeed beautiful. The original settlers never moved into the houses left by the Germans. They were inhabited by people who came to the borderlands, and they were mostly... well, they were called gold diggers. My dad, for example, said he could never live in the house of someone he knew."

"After 1968, during the vetting process, I was expelled from the Communist Party because I let my mouth do the talking. In Wenceslas Square, we had an overview of everything that was happening there because it was right under our windows. We saw how people were being attacked and how everything was going. We shouted at them from the windows, and to this day, I am surprised that nobody stormed in after us. Every time something happened, we ran out of the place and into Wenceslas Square. The person who was checking me out blamed me for my behavior at the time. I was angry when I told him he was there too. I had seen him there, and now he pretended as if he hadn't been there. I was not ashamed of what I thought and did (about the occupation). So I was kicked out...and I flew like a swallow."

"Those miners really didn't know if they were coming back from that job today. So there were maybe five pubs in Osek, as I remember. And it was just on payday. My mother and I couldn't understand it, and she was from here, so we called it airshow. It was just full, full, full pubs at every pub it was like that, so they played those skittles. They were just enjoying the day. And I know a lot of times even some of the women were waiting for them, so they would take some of that money from them so they could have a living for the kids afterward."

"The Russians have a different nature than we do. They have always been different. Back when I worked at Strojexport, they were difficult to deal with. Contracts with them were problematic. I may not have seen all the details from the accounts department, but I know from the traders who dealt with them that dealing with them was not easy. It was more of a dictatorship on their part. They dealt with us from a position of strength. They wanted to have the upper hand, and we were supposed to obey. They are just different. There was always a kind of megalomania about them. Everything was big with them, bolshoi."