Jana Štroblová

"I was put under pressure personally. They even threatened me that I would not reach my home and my son was ill in bed. They knew it, since they came to us twice, when I refused to arrive for interrogation. They arrived with a tape recorder and said that if I didn't go, they would arrest me. Otakar, my husband, was at a conference in Bratislava and I was alone with my son. He was terribly afraid of those men even though they treated him kindly. Later he would wake at night, terrified. And they threatened me: ,Not only that your child will never be able to study, but you may not reach him when he is ill again. You may get lost forever walking through Prague.' This is how they spoke to me."

"When I was still at Albatros publishin house - originally National Publisher of Children's Literature – I met a censor who could not properly speak Czech. I argued in favour for publishing of a poem by Halas How the Dove Came to the Collar. I worked on a new selection of Halas's poetry and I wanted to publish texts that had not been published before. The censors banned this poem. The dove came to the collar in such a way that the dove did not want to rock the Infant-Jesus and Mary bound her to the cradle, so it got its collar in the way. The censor defended his decision by saying: ,Czech children not like Infant Jesus.'"