Miroslav Vošahlík

“I remember it very well because on that 21 August [1968 - ed.] I had the radio switched on before five in the morning. There were Antonovs flying over our part of Prague in 60 to 80 second intervals. So I knew we were being occupied. I ran to my parents’ place, they were still asleep. I woke them up, they had no idea what was going on. Dad played me a fool when I said the Ruskies were here. He told me they’d been here since forty-five. I said they were occupying us right now and that they were here with tanks. I carried on to Motorlet, we didn’t even change into our work clothes. We gathered in this one yard, one of the managers declared that the situation was dire and that we had to leave to go. He used a sentence from Švejk [a famous Czech satire of World War I by Jaroslav Hašek - trans.]: ‘We’ll meet at six after the war at the Chalice [U Kalicha, a pub - trans.].’ Walter’s was a big plant, so I don’t know what went on in the other sections, I don’t know. We upped and left. My wife worked at the Central Bohemian Regional National Committee in Smíchov at the time. I rushed in to where she was and said: ‘Come on, we’re going home.’ Our son was at her parents’ home outside of Prague. The comrade director didn’t want to let her go. I told him that if he won’t let her leave, she’ll leave anyway. So we went. Public transportation was coming to a halt, so we went on foot via Palacký Bridge. We could hear shooting from the Smíchov side [of the river] - they were shooting at what is now the ministry of health. There was some office there at the time, I don’t know which, and the Ruskies mistook it for something else, so they shot it up, like the Museum [on Wenceslav Square - trans.]. So we went across Palacký Bridge under fire, and we dragged ourselves all the way to Pankrác.”

“My wife and I were in written contacte, and my visa had almost expired when she wrote: “Look, I won’t hold it against you if you do what you have planned. Carry on with your ambitions...’ I still have that letter. So every month I went to the German police, where they extended my visa by a month for five marks. I have to note one more important thing - neither my wife, nor myself, not even as a couple - we didn’t request political asylum in Germany. We were there as long-term tourists. No one pushed me to do this or that, it was all my decision. Every month as a foreigner, I underwent a compulsory medical check in Germany, and every month I requested my visa to be extended.”