Irena Fajmanová

"We returned to the farm in Chotyně near Liberec. The mother started farming on her parents´ farm. She did not want to enter the collective farm, so she had to make large contributions. Sometimes it was known there were no hens at a farm, and they were forced to hand over a hundred eggs, for example. Large farms had to hand over 3000 kg instead of 1000 kg of rye, because [the communists] knew they wouldn´t be able to accomplish it. My mother fought against it. When she went to a meeting, she said the farming was being done in a bad way. Denunciations started to be sent, accusing her. It got so far that she had to stand trial and in her absence, because she was lying in a hospital with jaundice, she was sentenced to twenty years. Because she was in the hospital, the commencement [of the imprisonment] was postponed."

"When I used to go to school for morning classes, I went from Liliová Street to Anenské náměstí, I entered Křemencova and I got to Vojtěšská from behind. In Křemencová, we always used to meet with my classmate and we went on. She said [once], 'Let's go the other way today, look, there are so many people here!' So we went around and got to the street where German cars were driving towards the church. We wanted to move on, we said we were going to school, and they pushed us away, started yelling at us in German to leave immediately. The area was full of Czechs, no one knew what was going on, no one knew they [the paratroopers] were there. I saw the whole action. Years later, I learned that a funeral home had been contacted. We saw the car coming in, and my classmate said, 'Come on, let's go away, someone must have died here and they're going to load them, I don't want to see it.' "

"One day we went to bed, nothing was happening. I know Mom just said, 'I'll go to bed later.' She was sitting in the kitchen pretending to be reading something, but she was upset. We fell asleep and suddenly at night [there was] a lot of noise and banging. Soldiers burst in, about six people. They pulled us all out of bed and told us to stand facing the wall or closet so we wouldn't see anything. When we moved our heads, they gave us such a blow from behind that blood ran from our noses. I wanted to take a step towards my brother and one of them saw it, so he kicked me and tore my thigh. I was crying, of course. My mom wanted to come to me, so they assaulted her too. She then was lying on the ground and they were kicking her. It was ugly. At the end we were all taken to Petschka´s palace. Then we didn't see mom or dad for several months and my brother and I were taken home after about a fortnight."