Ing. Jan Průša

"The management didn't change, but we were all invited to an interview and asked to comment on what had happened here. So I'll tell you the truth: everyone said something cautiously, because if someone said something wrong, they would have been fired. But it was like this—you just sat with some people, and they asked you, 'So what did you think about it? So we all came up with something, something that wouldn't hurt too much. Everyone stayed there, nothing changed, and they did these interviews with everyone from the lowest clerk to the manager—so you could talk to them there."

"We had one single room, otherwise they were four-bed rooms, larger ones... and some Dane came, gave me his passport, I gave him the key. He came back a moment later and threw the key back at me – of course, he expected there to be a shower and toilet, but when he got there, there was only a sink, and he had to go upstairs to use the toilet. That was clear. And it dawned on me that we couldn't keep doing this – closing down and renovating. So we closed on November 30, and in July 1992, after the renovation, we reopened. Only bare walls remained. There was dry rot..."

"The rooms had heating, but it ran on coal on the second and fourth floors for the whole hotel, and there was gas here, so what kind of nonsense was that? And most importantly, there was a 60-liter electric boiler in the showers, so when we took over the hotel, we had goose bumps because as soon as one person took a shower, the others were shivering because there was only cold water left. But since it was a student hotel at first, the students managed to cope with it in the beginning."

"We were already in Horemláz, Lešť near Krupina, Zvolen district, and some politruk came to me–we were playing football with each other, we played there–and he took me aside and started with me. I only remember a few things–if like... they had methods. So he was 'fooling' me there. And it turned out that he wanted me to squeal on my fellow soldiers while we were there, and I categorically refused and said, 'Don't be angry, but I'm not going to do that kind of bullshit.' That's how I told him right there. And that's how they immediately realised I was not the type to report to them. So that's what happened. But they had the methods. He hung around until it finally came out that I should squeal on or deliver messages, you can see from this title, that they knew I wasn't going to do it so he asked me not to mention it, that I was contacted by this man, that officer, and they left me alone, they didn't care about me anymore. But it is proof that they picked me out, and since they immediately cancelled it [the file], they knew that I wouldn't inform them."

"The hotel was taken over from RaJ (Restaurants and Canteens National Enterprise) in a desolate state, in a desolate state. At that time, it was called Hotel C, it was not, like today, the number of stars, but it was capital letters A, B, C, and this was a C. Shared showers, shared toilets, and cold water in the room. It was appalling when we took it over. Fun fact: I was at the reception desk because when we took over, of course, we wanted to take over the staff that was already there, but except for about three people, everyone else left, so we had to work at the reception desk. And here I was at the reception desk, and a Dane came here. I sold him the only single room that was here, otherwise, there were four-bed rooms, and in a moment he came back, returned the key and wanted his money back because he was looking for a shower and it was nowhere to be found. So he just left. So it was a sign that if we wanted to run a somewhat quality hotel, we wouldn’t be able to do what was common back then."

"Unfortunately, [dad] probably ran into some of those provocateurs. So somewhere in České Velenice, he was trying to cross the border, there was supposed to be someone who would transfer him, and it turned out the way it turned out in the films that were filmed later on, that someone somewhere said that he would transfer him and unfortunately it was a confidant of the State Security. And he was locked up for about a total of... because he tried to cross a second time, so he was locked up for about three and a half years in Jáchymov. It was fateful for him in terms of health. I know for sure that the period was three and a half years because we then received financial compensation, very ludicrous, for the period of the imprisonment. But for the first border crossing, he got about half a year, he served his sentence, and when they released him, Dad did not want to accept the fact that he had to stay here, so he attempted to cross the border again. He chose Christmas Day, and unfortunately, even on the second attempt, they arrested him. And then he stayed there for three years in Jáchymov. Then my mother lived alone in Bydžov. Thanks to her parents, since my grandfather was a baker, we sometimes had a chicken, some poultry or ducks. So [her] parents always helped us, sometimes an egg and such. Well, then mom had to start to work. I remember she had eight hundred and thirty crowns gross and supported two boys, my brother and me. So the situation was not rosy at all, but thanks to the parents, we somehow survived."