MUDr. Vladimír Krajina

"father´s aim had always been to become the President of the National Socialist Party in Exile. He had some articles published in American newspapers, he subscribed to them and read Czech newspapers and in the end he said – there´s going to be a Congress in Paris and I could be of help there, but in the end this was changed. The Congress took place in Prague and I was happy that, for the first time, we went as a family there. My sister, me, mother and father. The circle closed nicely in the way that my parents´ life had such a happy ending. I met all our relatives for the first time, people that I had only known from photographs. We also met President Havel. That was very interesting and very nice. And to see what everything looks like for the first time. And to travel to Třebíč and see all the roads and so on. This was really beautiful. Well, my father received an award in the Republic and also in Canada for his work. Very soon (after the arrival to Canada – MČ) my parents took an interest in Vancouver society life. Other Professors at university, the gourmet circles. Their life had changed into a Canadian life. Although they still loved the Czech nation and the Czech country, my mother, when we finally arrived back in Vancouver, said that she was happy to be home."

My father went to Nanaimo, a place near here, where they studied ecology and one of his students was a Dieter Müller. My father took him as his son. “The man here is really important and he is really like my son.’’ He educated him in ecology and forestry. Well, I met him a few times when we were in that chalet in the summer and he studied ecology and worked. Mr Müller and his wife went to have a swim one evening. There was a small lake there. Their children were sitting on my mother´s lap crying a bit. And she was hugging and kissing them. She called me and said: “Vláďa, if anybody in the concentration camp had told me that I would be hugging German children, I´d have told them they had gone mad.’’ I am only talking about this now because it is interesting that my parents went through really hard times in the concentration camp and so on, and yet there was not a terrible anger in them. And they didn´t teach me to hate people although they had such horrible experiences. And I feel grateful.