Regina Loukotová

"In January 1989, we came here to see Palach´s Week with my friend. Well, but I remember that, I was absolutely terrified from the beginning. Imagine coming from Pardubice to Prague. I was always so scared, because I couldn't imagine what it would mean, like if someone would come to me and arrest me, just to see me there. So we got out of the underground and stood there and watched, and then we left again quickly because we were so scared."

"We had Mr Kubát, a mathematician, who ran the education here, and I think, or I think I know, that he was in the party. But he was a normal person and approachable. I remember, this was on Friday, November 17, and we were just at the drawing and now Mrs. Zahradníková came in and said... No, that was on Monday. On Friday, I know I came home and there was Daddy tuned in to the Voice of America and now they were talking about what was going on in the square in Prague, which for us from Pardubice, Prague was the big city. And they started saying that maybe somebody had died, that's what I remember. On Saturday, Sunday I celebrated the birthday, on Monday we went to school, but only for second lesson. In Pardubice, suddenly there was no teaching at the grammar school, everybody was already talking, and the headmaster Kubát said that representatives from each class should come to the canteen, that they would consult what would happen. I think it was that very Monday of that 20th of November, actually, which was a huge decision, certainly his responsibility. It was either Monday or Tuesday when the whole grammar school came out in front of the University of Chemical Technology in Pardubice."