Bohuslav Bělík

"I graduated in 1953. We were supposed to have a graduation party and the currency reform had just come. So it happened that we only had one small rum at our party. There was no money for more. It was so cleverly done that slowly there was no money even for basic food."

"February 1948. I remember that we were all, all of Svit, then still Baťa, then as Red October and Svit, herded to the skyscraper, now there is a pharmacy there, so there was a firehouse and a stage was made there, where he performed - I remember the name to this day - Kijonka, probably from Ostrava, according to his speech. We were told that the only loud speech was clapping. That otherwise we were not allowed to make any comment on what he was going to say. And he said, and I remember this to this day, that there would be a revolution. It was going to be a communist revolution, that we were going to win and we were going to have as good time as communism would have here, that we were going to work four days a week for six hours and we were going to live like a pig in clover. He literally said so. Well, we were quiet. Somebody in that whole area showed their displeasure and then we saw some people come up to them and take them away. And we don't know where. So the situation was this. We had to keep our mouths shut and keep up because whoever expressed themselves somehow got lost and we don't know anything about them."