Ladislav Drahoš

"I was in the company. We were sleeping and suddenly there was a short circuit and a disturbance. I'm not bragging about that. Drahoš with a search dog rushed there [ran]. I almost stepped on a young boy from the GDR who was lying on the ground with his head down. And now in German: Hände hoch - hands up! The boy stood up, so I told my colleague, who was running with me, to keep an eye on him. Then I opened the door. That went well without a signal to announce that someone had broken in. The dog caught the scent... and another man from GDR, but he was a tall guy and had a knife. He commanded respect. So we went over the wires and through the door, it worked like I told you. I led him to the company and you know... to the counterintelligence right away. So, I don't know, well, it was my duty, actually, if there was a break in, I might go to prison."

"The Russians mostly occupied the border areas so that we wouldn't flee the republic - the border companies. So we heard that they were also coming to us. We arranged with the pub keeper of the village they had to pass by to call us if they happened to be passing by, because they were headed towards us. And then one day the pub keeper called - there were four transporters coming to us. We were a company of forty guys. The guard wired the barrier so that there would be some obstacle. And soon they were there. They stood at the barrier, nobody came to them. The high ranks ran away because none of them knew anything, they were all out. I don't blame them. There was a block of flats where they had families and kids, so I'm not surprised they were holed up. They left it up to the sergeant, a Slovak, such a cool and calm guy. I got emotional, I went to meet them - I think their sergeant came out and went to the company, so I [went to them too]. He, when he saw that I was being emotional, he slowed me down and went to negotiate it himself."