Petr Mička

"Sometime late December a regular uniformed policeman came to see my parents, delivering an order for me to appear for interrogation on the morning of 31 December. Nobody could make any sense of the date and it all. My parents obviously smelled trouble - it meant their son had done some wrong. I didn't tell them what it was about so that made it even worse. They didn't know what would happen but they probably suspected it was related to some anti-regime activities. On 31 December I walked into the station at Kaštanová street in Děčín. There sat a guy who as I realized arrived from Prague just to see me, and it was all clear: you were present at Kampa, describe what took place there. My tactics at that point was to play completely naive, claim that I didn't know what the protest was all about. Which was partially true. I definitely didn't show any courage there because I said I thought it was only about Lennon who was singing about peace - and what is wrong about that after all?"

"Another terrible anniversary celebrated at our school was the 'Victorious February' 1948. In fact, it was probably the most terrible anniversary, given the circumstances. Because we were to become teachers of civics which made us a sort of an elite among the future teachers - expected to bring up future generations. We had a professor who of course was a communist and served at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. But in retrospect I have to say he wasn't the swine. So we liked him in a way, and built up a relationship. When in February the faculty was tasked with participating in the parade, we were selected to be in its lead. We havn't had the courage to refuse or to play sick which would have been cowardly anyway, but better still. And so really, we marched in the parade. Paradoxically, our colleagues who stood on the pavements of Fučíkova street and waved, later accused us of being the bastards who marched in the lead of the parade. But they were also present themselves."