Marie Pelikánová

"Our mother cried and I said, 'Mom, why are you crying?' And they just told me, they didn't name me, but they said, 'Well, there was a lady here, who said that Novak's children must not have good grades with honours.' So however hard we tried, we only got worse grading at school like my friend got two and the Novaks three. We never (could not have) excellent grades, that's what was said."

"We had priests and a lot of people meeting in the evening, which was not allowed to be talked about. I just remember that they always sent us to bed early at six o'clock and there was a big rustle in the kitchen and we heard a lot of voices. I once had to go to the bathroom, and I got a hard spanking for it from Dr. Hýžďal, because I saw that the kitchen was full and there was a typewriter on the table, which we were not aware it was actually at home. It was always carried, I noticed it as a child, my mother carried it from the closet to the laundry, to the laundry basket or to the pantry. We were never allowed to say anywhere who was with us, who stopped by or what was talked about."