František Vácha

"In the fifties collectivization started and they took away my dad's machine and some other machines and the granary. They restricted a man and he could not farm. Imagine that he had compulsory deliveries and he didn't fulfill them, so he didn't get tickets, clothes tickets - what was given for food and clothes - so he didn't get that. He didn't have the oportunity. The family had to live on what they had - the cows, milk, potatoes, and they lived on what the farm produced."

"He was mayor for a while, he was elected mayor as a young man in 1938. When Hitler came, he had to be mayor for another year. An inspection came to the mill. There used to be 18 mills on that stream that runs through Drážkov. And in that village of ours, an inspection came to the Kuncls to see if the miller had any flour that he was trading, which the millers used to do, helping the people in the village who had nothing to eat. In the mill, a man always got something. Dad knew about it as the mayor, and he even knew where the miller had a hiding place - he had a shaft made there and he had a lid on it. When they came to check the mill, Dad stood on the lid and the Germans found nothing. But there was a man from the house who was cooperating with the Germans, and when they came back, he turned him in. Dad was invited to the Gestapo in Votice, where they investigated him. He was beaten quite badly, because he was bruised, his tooth was knocked out. They only let him out of Votice at eight o'clock in the evening, so he had to walk about 20 kilometres before he got to Sedlčany, from where he came home in the morning."

"I stole one picture when I was going through the material after 1992 at the police station. There were four photos and I took one of them. I'm depicted with a bucket and a hat. You can read on the picture 'Moscow – 2500 km'. I'm making an arrow. It was a beautiful time. You had, for instance, truck drivers driving by, who had flags on their trucks. He stopped and asked me if he may continue before it will dry. It was a time of a wonderful civic spirit. But it faded away after the normalization."

"(…) I was standing in line. I was an agronomist, a member of the People's Party. I worked for the cooperative farm that had the name "Svatý Jan". I thought about what I was going to say to that idiot. They had contemplated many times to change the name of the cooperative farm, to 'Future' or something like that but it just didn't sit well with Svatý Jan. They wanted to change the name of the village but the locals were against it. We survived the whole Communist regime as JZD Svatý Jan. It was nonsense but it was very successful. Nobody mistook us for any other farm. (…) 'Name?' 'František Vácha'. 'Occupation?' 'Agronomist'. 'Where?' 'JZD Svatý Jan'. I was already holding my ID card ready in my hand. 'Young man, will you make fun of somebody else, please?' I gave him my ID card and he stared at it for a while before he bewilderedly said: 'How is that possible? We're living in communism'. 'Political affiliation?' 'Czechoslovak Peoples' Party'. He took my papers and slammed them on the floor. He said: 'What idiot sent you here? He's from Svatý Jan and a member of the People's Party at the same time.' I told him: 'Comrade Secretary of the Communist Party in the district of Příbram'."

"You become very calm, peaceful and happy. You sit down in front of the museum, smoke your pipe and talk to the youngsters, telling them how life works. I tell the young people to be decent in life, not to swear and to be modest. They must not expect to have everything they want by tomorrow. Then they can make peace with life and be satisfied like I am."

"I was tremendously surprised that they didn't allow me to go on and study at a secondary school since I had very good marks on my school leaving diploma. The national committee didn't grant it. I had already submitted an application for an agricultural school in Březnice. My dad was very upset and he would send letters to various institutions asking for redress. We received a wonderful answer from the Rudé právo. Their response counted four lines and contained six grammatical mistakes. It reads that as soon my parents will re-educate me in the spirit of socialism, I'll be admitted to study."

"It wasn't my parents who taught me to live a different way of life, it was the people who were harming me, it was the regime that taught me to live my life in my own way. This taught me not to like the Communists and I feel this way to this day. I have a serious reason for this."