Jana Věchtová

"That year we were supposed to go to the Julian Alps, to Triglav and somewhere else... The boys were climbing rocks and we were walking around somewhere. They all left, and I, of course—or not of course—but I didn't have... I don't know why, but I was missing my last exam, in Marxism-Leninism or something, and I was supposed to take it on September 22 (August 22, correction ed.)—and I was supposed to take the train to join them. Well, so I was basically studying for that exam at the time, and then it all happened, everything that one remembers with such reluctance. I didn't go to the exam, I didn't go to Yugoslavia to join them, the border was closed. In fact, that marked the beginning of a new era. The student strikes and occupation strikes didn't help. We did that, we were at the faculty for about... I don't know, five days or four days, I don't know how long it lasted. We made various posters, which we put up."

"Dad didn't talk about it much until I was old enough to understand, when I was twelve or fifteen. Then again, I don't know... we just didn't talk about it much in the family, very little. Maybe Dad didn't want to, and there was basically no one else I could turn to. So I found out about it from all sorts of... much later, much later, from all sorts of materials and stories from those who used to go there."