Ondrej Berta

“I say it because then the evidence of publications became less strict than before. In 1987, in 1988 KDH (Christian Democtratic Union) was already operating. I had a friend who was an active member and he always brought some samizdats and I secretly made some copies for him. They distributed them and then read them at their gatherings. And that had some consequences. Presumably, some of my colleagues reported me. In 1988 I received a subpoena from StB for police interrogation. I did not know the reason. The situation was- I was on a road trip through Germany and Austria with my sister in 1986, we had some friends and an uncle there, who had stayed in Germany after the war. He was there in American captivity and then he did not feel like returning to Nove Zamky, so he stayed there. We were in contact with him, so we went for a visit. Of course those members of secret police found out we were in Germany, and they started to ask, to whom I handed passport, which secret materials I smuggled from the research institute and to whom I gave or sold them. It was of course a lie. I do not know the reasons, what they wanted from me and why. Then the year 1989 came, and all of this practically vanished. I found the record of my interrogation, and I also knew which officer interrogated me.

“As I mentioned, it was a political organization, and of course everybody who worked there was urged to join the party. I didn’t feel like it. When we organized a district exhibition of artists, some problems arose, here I shall return to normalization. After the evaluation, a very talented artist won the district competition of artists. It became clear that her father was expelled from the party during normalization. As a result, she couldn't take the prize. We even had to shred the catalog we prepared for the show. So we had such conflict with normalization. This later persuaded me that I was not suited for this job. So I left the education very quickly because I didn't agree with their approach.”