Ivana Janů

"It was such an absolute sacrifice that (Jan Palach) made that it's hard to put into words. It is a borderline situation where one cannot understand his sacrifice even after years. A huge sacrifice that still speaks to a lot of people. I think it was a mirror set up in such a way that the normalization involvement that a lot of people went into has no excuse anymore. Palach erased any excuse with his act. Normalization was no longer about life, about bare existence. It may have been about being sentenced to work somewhere on the periphery even in your field. Involvement in normalization only meant making the path easier. After Palach, any excuse for such behavior no longer applies."

"It is not possible to condemn everything, but it is necessary to condemn everything that can be. To be able to move on, to have reconciliation in the area. The chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Dr. Alexander Lionel Borain said it too. This commission did not condemn, but gathered evidence. It provided a platform where the harmed and the victims could speak, while simultaneously calling the perpetrators to account. It could even grant amnesty to someone who confesses, reveals everything and doesn't hide anything. Borain thought that no one would come forward, but the reward was that such a person would not have to go to court after all. Perpetrators confessed, sometimes in front of their victims, about the terrible acts they had committed. Some broke down completely and begged the commission to mediate contact with the bereaved. It is extremely important that victims have a platform where they can be heard. This will break the cycle of silence and bring about a catharsis in the country, and only then will it be possible to start again."

"At the end of the entrance exam a smaller man asked me why I didn't go to secondary school right away, when I got excellent grades. I immediately thought that it was starting again and I said that my father was sick and we had no money, that's why I went to work. And he immediately asked me how many hectares my father had. They knew everything. My father was waiting for me in the hallway and asked how it was. I said good, I knew everything, but in the end, they asked me about hectares again, so it will be the same again. And suddenly the headmaster of the school - Václav Šulc tapped my father on the shoulder from behind and said that I would be accepted. There was just a problem with accommodation. It was right after the interview. It was huge and he also kept his word and I got a note that I was accepted. It was in 1962."

"I have to admit, that we had all kinds of different neighbors. It was very fearful atmosphere during the 50´s. Only then you really got to know some of the people. Some people demonstrated the fellowship, their understanding and bravery. Now, that you asked me - I remember one story. There was the school in our village. Children from other villages also attended this school. There was this school and a church too. There were only two classes in this school. The principal of this school was some Mr. Adolf Kastner. He was a typical man of the period of time. He always did more than he was supposed to be doing according to a loyal person. Me and my older sister used to attend this school too. There was this small garden in the backyard. All kids could play and work in this garden, except for us. It was only because we were not members of the pioneer group. It’s funny; you could only experience these kinds of things if you lived in a village. Our principal had a wife - Mrs. Kastner. She was very honest woman and she was also our mother’s girlfriend. And when we got home and told to our mom that we didn’t get any bed to work on, our mom got really upset about it. I expected her to tell Mrs. Kastner, but she never did though. Otherwise if she would have, Mrs. Kastner would have been very ashamed of her husband. I never asked her why she didn’t say anything to her."

"I used to have straight A´s at school. Girls who finished the school with D´s were able to go at least to Skoda factory to become the turners. But I wasn’t allowed to do even that. So I ended up with no education, with no degree. I basically ran away from my home. Although I was still so young I worked for the Agriculture Buildings Company in Prague. I started off at the department located in Pátek nearby Poděbrady town region."

"I didn’t expect any miracles. What I expected was the bumpy process with everything that goes with it. If there’s anything I’m worried about - it’s the democracy. You still hear only few people speaking today...To me, the fact that we have a freedom now, is the biggest conquest. Only free people can use all of their body and soul to perform great acts. You never achieve anything if you’re a retainer."

"It was the key moment in a very tense situation. The politician’s adrenalin was dosed to vote in the early October. And then we stepped into it somehow. Big money of all political parties was involved. But that’s just the political state. That’s the democracy. It happened already in the past and we didn’t get the case. The court may decide about the case only if someone deed. The Constitution itself says what kind of recipients can come up with such issue to the Constitutional Court. This time it was Mr. Melčák who came. The first respond was: ´What! He’s the deserter. He’s the...I don’t know what. It was the political party that nominated him, who should guarantee his political qualities, at the first place! The other party took him to help them with their decisions and all of a sudden he became unusable and ugly for both sides. And it was the constitutional court who was supposed to see him as some dirty person. But we don’t care about that. He brought the case in. We studied the case and made a conclusion that it is important and constitutionally appropriate. (The representative Mr. Melčák complained that the constitutional law about the early elections reduces his rights of the Member to pursue four-year mandate - editor’s note) For the first time we used the so-called constitutional law, but it was a law enacted in contravention of the constitutional procedure. It happened once before; we talked about the constitutional conventions already. Constitutional conventions may not arise from the unconstitutional procedures."

"After the year of 1968 they could face down your life by not allowing you to do what you wanted to do. But it wasn’t life threatening anymore like it used to be during the 50´s. Your life was in real danger back then, things like heavy jail or destroyed, wrecked families were common things. After 1968 I realized too, that nobody was forced to servility, unless he wanted to walk on the spotless ground. The advantage of being a member of the Communist party were so minimal - sometimes it meant that you were in charge of only two people. That’s ridiculous!"