"But it wasn't very pleasing for my husband either, so in 1980 I said, I think it was about time. Dad died in 1977 and in 1980 we started preparing to move out. In September 1982, we moved out. It took two years. They wanted to see carpets, paintings, just about anything. And now everything had to have the time again, so that it couldn't be three years in between, it had to be at a certain time. And someone came here for the carpets, I think for the paintings too… Well, probably, because where would we bring them. But my father-in-law also sometimes collected such shells, pebbles and such by the sea. I went with that. It was such a box, to a certain museum, to prove that it's nothing like…"
"May I ask, would you tell us something in Swiss? Just for fun, it would be quite interesting. The way German is spoken in Switzerland… (then the witness is speaking German)"
"Then August 21st came and at about six o'clock in the morning my aunt woke me up. At that time, I lived with my aunt, my parents were already in Ticino, they really moved down there, and I stayed in Zurich with my aunt. And she told me that Tomáš, who announced that he would come at the end of August, probably would not come, as the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia. And then we were stuck all day, and every day watched TV, what was going on here. And I remember that I was most impressed by the Czechs when they walked with their hands in front of them like that, marching against those tanks."
Rita Vosolsobě was born on August 28, 1944 in Zurich as Rita Schianchi. Marie’s mother came from Czechoslovakia, her father Attilio from Italy. She has a younger brother Attilia. From the age of two, she lived with her aunt on the farm, coming back home to her parents only at Christmas. At the age of nine, she returned to her parents in Zurich. After high school, she studied in Brussels for a year. In 1967 she met the academic painter Tomáš Vosolsobě. They wrote letters for a year with the help of a dictionary, because she did not speak Czech or English and he spoke German. In August 1968, Tomáš Vosolsobě was to come to Switzerland to see her, so she watched the development of events in Czechoslovakia with tension after the occupation of the country by the troops of the Warsaw Pact states. In autumn 1968, she went with him to Czechoslovakia, where she stayed. They married in July 1969 and lived together in Uhříněves. At first she had to learn Czech, she took language courses and she also studied Czech at Charles University. She then found a job at the Swiss Embassy in Prague as a translator. In 1980, they began to prepare for moving to Switzerland. But it took two years to get all the necessary stamps and permits. In 1982 they moved to Bern, where Rita worked at the Czechoslovak embassy. After four years, they moved to Zurich, where they lived until 2000. Here she got a job as a court reporter. After the revolution, she and her man began to visit Czechoslovakia, and in 2000 they moved to Velvary. Since they had no children, Rita Vosolsobě established a foundation fund that manages her husband’s paintings. She lives in Velvary.
