Lukáš Matoušek

"When I was maybe four or five years old, I don't know exactly, I remember an exhibition where my grandfather displayed stuff from his factory. President Beneš with Mrs. Benešová and Jan Masaryk attended the opening, and we were there because grandpa took the whole family. I recall my aunt poking me in the back and saying, 'Go say hello to Mr. President,' and I walked over there and put my hand up and said, 'Hello, Mr. President, my name is Lukáš Matoušek,' because I was taught to introduce myself. I have a couple of photos of Mr Beneš bowing down to me, Mrs. Benešová, Jan Masaryk, and I also recall there was a Minister of Nutrition named Majer, and he said to me, 'You know, I'm the one who doesn't give you the oranges.' Then I remember - this was after 1948 when my grandfather... Of course, I remember my grandfather... When we used to go to his cottage as children, he was actually already under surveillance, or some secret policemen would always show up. The lady who would babysit my brother and me always warned him and told him that when he came to us, some people were following. He'd say, 'They come to me all the time, don't worry about it.'"

"My grandfather Jiří Hejda graduated in law, but started out as a journalist and took interest in economics. Soon, he became quite an interesting economist and wrote about the subject. He wrote for České slovo, then for Lidové noviny, but I don't know in what order now. He was Ferdinand Peroutka's high school mate, they were a year apart, and Peroutka often took him to Přítomnost to do economic analysis for him. He worked as a journalist/economist for many years. Then, as an economist, he was recruited by ČKD to be the CEO. He had to leave ČKD at the beginning of the occupation, and he bought a kitchen equipment factory in Vršovice with the severance pay that he got, and he ran that plant throughout the war."