Prof. RnDr., DrSc Helena Illnerová

„Myslím, že když potom tatínek pochopil, jaká je doba, jak se to vyvíjí, tak se snažil dostat pryč, že měl nějaké známé na rumunském velvyslanectví, že doufal, že by to šlo přes Rumunsko. Měl nějaké spojení, že by mohl jít k nějakému odboji a že by se z Rumunska dostal dále, ale to nevyšlo. Tatínek se potom snažil přes turecké velvyslanectví, protože dělal právníka na tureckém velvyslanectví. Tam řekli, že se to pokusí zařídit, nicméně sami si netroufli. Napsali do Ankary, jestli je to možné, a Ankara to nahlásila tady pražskému gestapu. Takže tatínek byl vyslýchán na gestapu a potom byl vůbec prvním komandem nebo transportem, který šel z Prahy do Terezína, to bylo tzv. Aufbaukommando, tak šel do Terezína. Čili tatínek v listopadu 1941 odešel do Terezína.“

„Já si na to docela pamatuju, samozřejmě ne na toho 5. června, ale pamatuju si ten den, kdy se to [poprava dědečka] stalo, protože tehdy už s námi byla sama maminka. Bylo léto, byli jsme v Dobřichovicích, ale maminka přijela z Prahy a byla celá v černém a byla uplakaná, říkala, že už je dědeček mrtvý. Samozřejmě mně byly tehdy čtyři roky pryč, tak jsem nemohla moc vědět, co to je mrtvý, a říkala jsem: 'To už nám nebude nosit bonbony.' A v rodině se to potom vzalo, jestli jsem nebyla jako dítě cynická, ale já jsem vůbec netušila, co to je, když je někdo mrtvý.“

“But, there was a certain surprising positive aspect to it. When you’re taking part in the conferences and you listen well to what is being said there, you will identify the current trends in science. You learn what the main stream of science is researching, or you get a hint that the mainstream will turn in another direction. Sometimes you hear an incredibly interesting message, and everybody starts imitating it because they see how it might continue. When you don’t go to the conferences, you get a bit isolated. You lose the perception of what is currently ‘in’. It’s a little bit like following fashion: you know the current trend, so you know the direction to go and whom to cite. But, it may happen to you – when you’re a relatively good thinker – that you’ll follow the right, original direction yourself and that you’ll become a sort of a fashion guru yourself. In 1989, when I came to the conference, I heard them saying: ‘Look, Illnerová is here. Let’s go and take a look at her’. Because they already knew my name from literature even though they had never seen me in person before. By that time, I wasn’t the youngest anymore. So, it was actually possible to do something here without the knowledge of the larger world, and finally it turned out to be right. Maybe, if I had listened too much to what the others were saying, I wouldn’t have chosen that original way which brought results later on.”

“I began to study the development of the Pineal gland and it turned out to be a wonderful organ because it would cyclically produce the hormone Melatonin. It produces Melatonin at night but not during the day. You could see such beautiful sinusoids going up and down. At that time, I studied the whole metabolism. I was lucky with my discovery, but you have this very true saying, that: 'Luck is waiting for those who are ready to use it'. I used to go to the animal holding room at night with a red flashlight. One night, I forgot that red flashlight, and I thus had to leave the door to the room partly opened for about five minutes in order to let the light from the hall shine into the room. Those five minutes of illumination changed all the measured values of the Pineal gland. In this way, I discovered that even a brief illumination has an immense influence on the Pineal gland. Of course it took me a long time and a lot of research to find out the cause of this. Only after a long time did I find out about the existence of something that I hadn’t known prior to that, and that is the biological clock located in the brain of mammals. By shedding light on the animals, I turned the clock to a wholly different time.”

“My mommy had some jewelry that she had gotten from my daddy at some occasion. I think that it might have been at the 10th anniversary of their wedding. She decided to sell that jewelry to a Belgian who then sent us some money for the purchase of a little car. That Belgian did this sort of business on a grand scale, and, therefore, it is no wonder that it leaked out and that it was turned into an affair. My mother was involved in it and had to go to court. The transaction was interpreted as an unauthorized foreign exchange operation or, better said, unauthorized selling of something. For my mom this whole affair was terribly agonizing because my dad hadn’t known about it at all. My mom was an amazing personality, and she was a risk taker, so she was certainly aware of the risk this entailed. She knew that the transaction was far from being perfectly legal. However, she had decided to undertake it nonetheless. So, we got a car but my mom was faced with a trial. Even though her father was a university professor, the expert opinions said that she was of bourgeois origin--these were the ugly labels they put on people. It was in 1960, at the very end of the 1950s, and my mom was terribly anxious that they would kick me and my sister out of university. We were then just about to graduate. One day before the trial, she hanged herself. That was a truly awful end of my childhood.”