Zuzana Wienerová

"And I was hoping [to return home] to some extent because I was so excited about my studies in psychology and I loved Prague and I loved my mum and my family and my friends. And Jan said one night over wine, 'We're not coming back,' and I said, 'What? Are you serious? Do you want to stay here for good?' And he said, 'We'll see, but we're not going back.' I said, 'Then they'll never let us go back. What about Mummy? What about our family over there? They'll be punished.' And he said, 'I hope not. I hope... But we're not going back. If you love me like I love you, you'll stay with me and we'll stay here.' So I was crying, it was hard for me, but the love for him was strong, stronger than saying, 'I'm leaving.' And I wasn't sure I would be able to manage it on my own, so we stayed. And then there were difficult decisions, difficult moments, when the Czech embassy told us, 'You have to come back, and if you don't come back, you´ll lose your Czech citizenship.' And Jan said, 'I knew it, and I am ready for it. And you're going to come with me and we're going to get through this.'"

"And then came the terrible sixty-eighth. And John immediately called the embassy and said, 'Please give me a visa, I'm leaving and I'm going to fight for the country.' And they said, 'Unfortunately, it's all over, it's over.' And now we were terrified, what about my mother, siblings, friends, what about his sons. But the border was open there. And we were ashamed, terribly ashamed. Just... On one hand for, even for... even though John openly said that it would be national suicide if they fought and defended themselves, really the whole army. But the army was with the government. But for Jan it was a second loss because he had enlisted in '39, went to fight, was willing to lose his life for Hitler [meaning against] and we surrendered actually, we were occupied. And now for the second time. For him it was very hard, difficult and he was... he had a temper, he was furious. Nothing could be done, nothing could be done."