Jan Valter

“If I do my neighbour wrong – by mistake, not intentionally – I will do my best to apologise on the basis of my character, because it is something I did not want to do but it happened. You see, if the communist party said it made mistakes... I mean, some of the people were innocent. They were not attacking the state system, the communism, yet they were sentenced without guilt. This sort of apology could happen. Did we do the locals any wrong after 1989? Did we? Just imagine – the secretary, Václav, never apologised to dad. But his brother Josef said: ‘Jenda, I apologise for my entire family, for what my brother did to you.’ You can see the difference. He was able to say it.”

“Americans organised dances on the boulevard. I wish you could see how they treated the boys and girls whom they drove to the dances. Peanut butter, biscuits, coffee! It was amazing. And the US Army had their own band in Plzeň that would come and play: In The Mood... Boy could they dance... The girls who had the rhythm and could dance held up, but those who had no rhythm dropped out, blushing, they did not manage. (...) Of course, we would sneak in and wanted some sweets. But we were twelve years old, so when they spotted us they went, ‘Hallo, hallo!’ and ran us outside!”