Karel Vízner

"You could see and experience something and you even made good money, couldn´t you. We had three currencies. We had our crowns, dollars and a Tuzex [special shops where special vouchers were used] account. So we had everything. Ten thousand a month, and we were doing other kinds of deals, all kinds of business. Sweden and Pakistan had prohibition, so we sold them some alcohol, and in Poland they were dealing with everything. Every time there was a loading or unloading, a worker would walk by and ask discreetly for a beer, a drink or cigarettes. He tried it, and if we got hooked, we'd make a deal. We had a cupboard in the cloakroom where we used to put... Whoever had whatever goods, we'd put them in the cupboard, and we'd write a list, and whoever was on watch, we'd tell them we'd sold this and that, and here's the money. There wasn't any swindle, there wasn't. That's how the extra money was made. I used to have my money sent home, I had the money in my drawer, I wasn´t greedy. I was happy, I bought a house, a car, the normal way, legally."

"That was misery. Officers and soldiers everywhere and women doing the hardest work. In the morning, tractors would come in and the girls would polish them. It was misery. We weren't allowed to give them anything or take them on the boat. There were mothers with children, I wanted to give them an orange or milk, they wouldn't take anything, and if they did, they took it secretly. There were ilnesses and rashes, ulcers. People were scared, edgy. They were always looking around to see what was going on. Back then we used to load zinc, similar to bars of gold, little bars of zinc. The girls used to take it up there on pallets. It was watched like it was gold. There was always counting it, always signing something, every load."