Helena Pražáková

“Every time there was an election, those communists, those dyed-in-the-wool communists – often they were not even too smart – they would always boast that that Party won the election with 100 percent votes. And although I knew that I would not change anything, and I thought: One day I will try it, when I was at the first election; I will put a blank paper inside and see whether they admit it or not. I tore out an A5 size page from my notebook and I hid it and I went to cast the ballot behind the screen as usual, but instead of the ballot with the list of Communist Party candidates I put the blank paper inside. When I later met some of those communists, I would ask them about the outcome of the election, and he said: ‘Just imagine that, there was some bitch who put a blank paper in there, and she ruined it for us.’ I was secretly laughing. But they did admit it, they admitted that they had not attained one hundred percent of votes, and it was a big shame for the village.”

“It was in 1939, on 15th March, and we were listening to the radio with dad. I did not recognize it, but he told me that they were broadcasting music from Smetana’s symphony Our Homeland and a male voice, a strange voice, was speaking: ‘Citizens, keep calm. We need to face those who are already in our territory, with dignified calmness.’ We went with my mom and dad to see the Germans who were arriving. Most of them were riding in motorcycles with a side car. One was driving and the other was sitting behind him and pointing his weapon. The weather was horrible, it was raining and the wind with snow was blowing. They were passing through the street and there was one slightly crazy or confused boy and he threw a little ball at one of the soldiers. The soldier pointed his gun at him, but of course he did not fire.”