Josef Čunek

"First I met with the church secretary from Přerov. I would say that nowadays that’s just a bon mot. How could people even say something like that? The church secretary welcomes me and says: 'Welcome to this district, I am the district secretary and I wish you success in your work, but please, pay attention to the reconstruction of the church and the scaffolding that is often needed, rather than to the people.' He tells you all that directly and does not even blush. He will immediately tell you not to care about the people and especially not to contact the youth too much."

"I remember that in 1990, when I was preparing third-graders for their first Holy Communion, I think it was February 1990, an eight-year-old boy, in the third grade, stood up all of a sudden, he didn't want to listen and learn anymore, so he said, 'We're going on strike now, we won’t study anymore!' He learned it from TV and from his parents, he wanted to go on strike, (laughs)..."

"Then I was transferred to Tábor, to Bechyně exactly, and there we formed a group of believers. They were graduates from different fields, for example doctors. There was also an evangelist among us, Jonatán, a very typical Old Testament name. It was at the Bechyně airport, forest all around us, so we had a place to hide. We agreed that every Saturday evening we would take off from our companies and we would have a kind of spiritist séance. We would meet as religious people, we could talk about God, and encourage each other. Those were amazing things compared to when I found out I was being monitored. All of a sudden I found out that the lock of my personal belongings was cut off. We had little copies of the New Testament, they disappeared, also letters disappeared. Counterintelligence came and questioned me. When they bother you for a month, or three, or six, your stomach feels it, even if you don't admit it to yourself. So I was enjoying life, but I returned from military service with stomach ulcers."

"There was a tank next to a tank along the wall surrounding the factory. We stared at it open-mouthed, of course. And as I was talking about the volleyball court there, it was lined with trees and bushes which went almost till the main road - about fifty meters, then there was grass. So I remember hiding in that bush next to the tanks. I picked up a rock and threw it. I just couldn't help myself. I was thinking that nobody could see me. And then I remember how the tank turret together with the gun barrel turned. That's when I got scared. I was still hiding, but not in the bushes anymore, I was behind some trees. The need to do something, to defend yourself, when you clearly know something wrong is going on, that was stronger than my fear."