RNDr., CSc. Doc. Milan Kopecký

"I will tell you that I remember the date of July 2, 1990, when we were told by the faculty that if we wanted to have a look at the future workplace, we were to arrive at 2 p.m. in front of the former military headquarters building. That someone would come who had the authority to unseal the sealed building and de facto make a sort of first inspection of the building. I've been instructed by this Dean Hodaň to go in there myself, so I'm wearing short sleeves... Two soldiers came in, and right at the unlocking, they started putting on a chemical suit, or an anti-chemical suit. I was staring at what was going on. During the opening, they both had dosimeters, which is a measurement of radioactivity. And so now I was proceeding down the lower corridor, and they were looking to see if they could measure there. I remember the one saying: `What if there's a timer that actually identifies movement and now it's just like an explosion?' So, they said: `Stay back, so we're going to kind of have to look at it like we have to, but we're going to proceed very carefully.' I describe it in great detail because like when I wake up at night I see it, so then I also got into the office of a commander of some sector, I don't know what sector. So, it was some Soviet general who actually has an office where the faculty of education now has the dean's office. So, there I thought, there was no explosion like I don't know. But the truth is that at least I was able to take away some plans, which I saw for the first time. Well, when I showed it to our dean Hodaň, we were sitting around wondering if it was possible to build an auditorium there, because it was all offices. Relatively like medium size or rather smaller, so like some kind of lecture hall for sixty people, I just guessed. So, I actually started ordering a structural engineer, then again some crew came and looked at it, they were military people, to see if there really was some kind of explosive device. When it was determined that the thing might actually be like a unobstructed thing, they did the inspection, then the structural engineer came in and we started building."

"I would really call this episode the Dog, because he really plays a pretty crucial role there. The story really started sometime towards the end of the war, because my grandfather, because he had a farm, he also had this big yard. And I, as an eight-year-old boy, soon found out that there was a group of German officers who sometimes met in that yard. One of them used to come to these meetings with a dog, a beautiful, red-haired, long-haired dog that he called Waldi. I, of course, being eight years old, found that here was a chance to have a dog nearby that I liked very much, so I started to be friends with this Waldi as much as I could. And I remember that actually on the last day of the war, which was the eighth of May in 1945, there was still a group of German officers in our yard that morning. And the one with the dog. Then, perhaps around half past ten, they somehow dispersed, because some vehicles were coming, which they were supposed to jump into and leave. The owner of the dog either didn't make it, I don't know, all I know is that he jumped into the trailer of the motorcycle and then left with the driver of the motorcycle. The dog flew after this motorcycle, I ran out in front of the house just to be present. Now, when I saw that dog running away, I was kind of like sadly accepting that I had actually lost a great friend, so I was counting on never seeing that dog again. Then a few hours later, maybe three or four hours later, the Soviet tanks actually started coming from the other side. We were already in front of the house, of course we were welcoming the end of the war, everybody was completely excited. So, we were just waving, shouting with joy, and now I'm looking at these vehicles coming and these tanks, and now I see that on the fourth, fifth, just the xth tank I see a dog. A rusty, long-haired one, next to a little soldier who just appeared there in that view as well. And now, as the tank slowly passed by me, I called out to the dog: 'Waldi!' The dog jumped off the tank, jumped on my shoulders with his paws, almost knocked me down, and now we were really hugging like lovers. It must have been quite comical, of course the tank drove on and the Russian soldier sort of beckoned me, I sort of understood the beckoning to keep the dog, that what would he do with it on the tank. So, I was very happy that I actually got a beautiful Irish Setter on the first day of liberation, which we then renamed Lord because we all liked him, dad, mom, we all liked him. He really was a wonderful dog, so we changed it from Waldi, which always reminded us of that German, to Lord, and I started going for walks with Lord around that Velký Újezd."