Master of Fine Arts Zdeněk Křenek

"Those people were around him and I could be close because I had that privilege. They all thought I was his son, but of course I wasn't. They had a kind of relation with me because they wanted to be with him and they wanted his autographs and they wanted this and that... I was involved in that kind of adult life. I mean, I was adult but I was still a kid, sort of; a kid from Moravia. About a week ago, it was Veterans Day, and I was unveiling a plaque on the house where he [Richard Husmann] used to live and wrote the Riders in the Sky. I am genuinely happy about the plaque. I'm still interested in it. It was such a nice gathering of the Riders in the Sky and airmen's fans. Ondřej Vetchý, who played in Dark Blue World was there. Other than that, Richard was my guide me in the sense that I actually ended up... well, we had a sort of falling out. There's no need to go deep into it here. Then I found my wife. I met her in some company and found out she was from General Janoušek's family. It was also interesting for me because General Janoušek lived with my future wife in Klárov, and every time we passed by that house, Richard would salute because he was his commander. He showed me the bottles they had drunk together; he respected him immensely. I decided I was going to get married, and when that falling out with Richard happened, we didn't see each other for about six months... I thought, I'm getting married, and the only person who should be there is Richard. What happened is that it was about two days before the wedding, and I was living in Zizkov, in a category 4 flat, and one day someone rang the bell and it was Richard. I opened the door and my future wife was standing behind me, and he looked at me and said, 'Is that your girl?' And I said, 'Yes, she is.' We were facing each other and I said, 'But you know her, she's the granddaughter [great-niece actually] of General Janoušek.'"

"I saw him as a hero, but when I met his fellow soldiers who survived and reached quite an old age later on, I think they were just... well, it was a different time. They were concerned about honour and their homeland, which we miss a lot. And it felt obvious to them. I think my father had that adventurous spirit, too, of course, but he felt like... he was kind of a black-and-white personality. Even when he was in prison afterwards, he didn't want to be released early. That wasn't the best thing for us. He certainly didn't consider himself a hero. He took it as a matter of course, sensing that somebody was trying to destroy his country. He was a young guy like everyone else... Their attitude actually was that when they had problems later on, when the pilots died - many of them did; only a small percentage made it back from those missions - they took it as their mistake. I know it sounds clichéd - they died for their country... but he saw it as his fault, like he should have been more careful. That's actually very strange. Anyway, he was proud to be Czech."

"I didn't see my father again after that, I only saw him when he was convicted. He was sentenced to sixteen years, and after that I only saw him in the prisons where my mother and I went to visit, either my brother or I went, or my mother went alone..." - "Do you remember any of those visits?" - "Yes, I remember that very well. That was in Valdice. He went through the prisons in Opava, Ostrava, Mírov, Leopoldov, but I remember Valdice. I remember we went there by train, very early in the morning, along with all those other people who were going to see their relatives. In front of the prison there is an alley, and we walked through the alley. My mother had already contacted the people who were coming with us. I recall they put us in a room with tables, with the convicts sitting at the tables. There were more of them, and at each table there was a guard too. My mother sat with me opposite my father and talked to him. He asked how we were and such general questions, and at one point my father said he wished I could sit on his lap. I sat on his lap, but the man said I had to sit next to my mother again. That's all I remember. Then there was this commotion and they said, 'End of visiting!' My father hugged us and then we took the train home again."