Věra Pokorná

"Then some strange... It was Russian carts and horses. The Russians were awfully nice, they didn't rob houses or anything. They didn't even steal watches, they didn't do anything like that. I remember I was ten years old, my grandmother dressed me up in this red dress with flowers and put a red bow on my head and I went to watch. I walked alongside the horse-drawn carriages and it was unusual, such a strange army. I was expecting tanks as a child. Suddenly this older soldier saw me and said something to me. I didn't understand a word he said, and he picked me up and stood me up again. He was happy that the war was over, that he could see a child with a bow and that everything was good. And then the ones here left quickly, the whole village calmed down, there was nothing there, and then, like a curious little girl, I went to see again, although I was forbidden to do so, so I fled from the garden to the village square. There was a single American tank in the village square. On top of it, on the outside of the tank, was a soldier in uniform, sleeping. And the child was curious, quiet, what can you do as a little girl, so I stood by him and probably watched, but it woke him up or he wasn't sleeping at all, because he was probably watching the tank or something. And now he was pointing at me like that, telling me to go over there. But grandma said not to, so I can't go. I can't. So I only sneaked halfway in and he was giving me something. So I also put my hands like that and he gave me something that I didn't know, but it looked like candy."

"Early morning, open window, beautiful weather. I hear pebbles hitting the floor of the room, so I'm drawn to the window. I look up and the guy who sang so beautifully that night is standing downstairs and he says, 'Dragan!' Dragan is Karel. 'Dragan, Věra! The Russians are occupying Czechoslovakia!' I can still hear him to this day. And my husband and I said to each other, because we knew that it might not work out... that the Prague Spring was blooming with too many flowers. We thought if it didn't work out, we wouldn't be here. Of course, you can imagine how surprised people were that we left an apartment that had just been furnished, that we had waited so long for, and that it was actually all for about twenty thousand. And then we had to pay it off. But we were determined not to be there because we'd just had enough."