"One thing is how hypocrisy manifested itself in daily life. Those who haven't experienced it, those who haven't lived in it, can't imagine what that means. Already at high school there were secret agents among certain classmates. They were set to be always the most fun in the centre of the group in order to inform in the correct places. So of course those, who somehow different and deviated, were persecuted a lot. Of course a man could not bear any responsibility for own life and make own decisions; that there were actually some rules and that - wanted or not – these was clearly lined up and one couldn't decide otherwise. It was more or less about choosing a profession. You could make your own choice, but the most interesting things were conditioned by becoming a member of the party. We also talked a lot about it with my classmates at school, what we would do after graduating. I studied architecture. So imagining finishing our studies, there was much frustration. We basically asked ourselves how to go on. We did not want to become party members. I didn't want to be a party member."
"There were a lot of strikes, I don't remember exactly the data anymore. But the strikes were always announced somehow in advance - the direct meetings in Svobody Square, for example. But it was always kind of a tip of the iceberg. We did a lot of activities as students around it. We printed posters, wrote posters, somehow we spread them at night in factories, we delivered them, whoever had a car; it was not entirely customary for students to have one, so whoever was able to rent a car at home. We attempted to inform smaller towns and factories as much as possible and get them on our side. So the strikes went on. Then it was enthusiastic, it was perfect. It was really just... what is now happening in Letná for example reminds us that the people were very positive, very accommodating. And what was very interesting was that when we actually had the occupation strike of the school, we lived in that school, a lot of people outside brought us food, baked buns, and brought us money too. So we soon realized that we have to do some ledgers or just something like that and register it all in some way. External support from people was overwhelming. I took it from a lady who came to school and the first person she met was me, giving me about twenty thousand crowns at the time. That they are bringing us lifelong savings, that something tragic has happened in their family, and that they are a big fans of that change. So we've experienced dozens, hundreds of different totally cool reactions from people every day, and it was really unbelievable, how these people tried to support us."
"My grandfather and grandmother were landowners, and we actually lived in a farm that was more or less occupied, confiscated. I was playing in those empty stables. I basically asked my grandfather why there was one horse borrowed. He said that it is his horse and he had a full stable of horses, but everything like cows and horses was confiscated by the collective farm. He had space for many animals, originally also owned forests and fields and they took everything from him. My Grandad and grandma were big farmers in an empty farm, which was such a strange feeling - to play and run in those huge spaces full of some old dusty farm machinery, but I can say that Grandma and Grandpa weren't broken by that. They were very nice and positive people."
Eva Eichlerová was born on April 29, 1968 in what was then Gottwaldov, today‘s Zlín. She grew up on the then confiscated farm of her grandparents. She started going to school first in Žeranovice, then in Holešov. She was not accepted to the secondary clothing school in Prostějov, so she eventually graduated from the secondary industrial school of construction in Gottwaldov. In 1986 she started studying at the Faculty of Architecture, Brno University of Technology. In the summer of 1989, she decided to sign the Several Sentences manifesto. In September of the same year, she took part in a student exchange in the United Kingdom and visited other Western European countries. During the Velvet Revolution, she served on the strike committee at the Brno Faculty of Architecture. Since 1990 she has worked in an architectural office in Brno. In 2010, she and her husband founded her own architectural studio. He has two sons and lives with his family in Brno.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
