Josef Jiřičný

"After the invasion, I still had one year until graduation, so I decided to stay in Czechoslovakia to finish school. When I got my high school certificate, I went to England again to work part-time. I had a visa for 90 days. Leaving in those days meant you had to apply and stand in a huge queue. First, for an exit visa with the police, and then for an English visa in front of the English embassy in Prague. The queue took three days, so people took turns overnight. I got my visa, but for 90 days only. I had to return my passport in 90 days, because I was supposed to do my military service, and I didn't really want to do that. During that time, I found a job because the English were very kind towards the Czech refugees at that time. Unfortunately, since I arrived a year after the invasion, there was no money left for Czech refugees. Still, they gave me an international passport, a United Nation or refugee passport. They also gave me a work permit. I worked in the cinema because I could start at eleven o'clock in the morning, and I went to a school of English between eight and ten o'clock."

"I was at school when we were invaded by our Warsaw Pact friends in '68. It was quite interesting. Looking back, it was kind of like a glue that solidified our class together. At the beginning, there are thirty people in the class; these are friends, those are maybe not friends, maybe you talk to those and don't to those, and these are good friends. When the Russians came, suddenly the whole class was one unit, we were all united. We decided to do an 'occupy our school' event. We stayed in school overnight; we slept on the benches and we felt like we were doing something for freedom and for the future."