Miroslav Rehák

“At the time, the ambassador Stareček got very angry about it, because he was at home for holiday. He returned very upset and kept saying things against the Russians, and such. In the end, when I was done with my work in Sudan, I found this man at the airport, carrying luggage. A respected ambassador in Khartoum, just because he stood up against the system, ended up like this. Back then, everyone was being asked what he thought, thus, as an honest man, he expressed his opinion. He condemned the invasion and became only some kind of servant at the airport. Anyhow, at least we knew, he was a fair man.”

“I was ten years old, when the war ended. Unfortunately, as a Bratislava citizen, I have witnessed several bombings of the city. Whether it was bombing of the Apollo refinery, the first one, or the night bombing. I have experienced this despite the fact that my father wanted us to move from Bratislava, as it was very dangerous. As it was quite popular back then, that the locals of Bratislava were evacuated, we moved to Záhorská Bystrica, where I also went to school. However, as when you least need it, anytime we were returning to Bratislava for the weekend, there was a bombing. Moreover, my father very logically said, ‘Let’s not live on the lower end, as there is a road, which Russian troops might go through, but let’s live on the upper end.’ Thus, we stayed on the upper end. Unluckily, when the Germans retreated, they aimed at the church and the artillery grenades were falling exactly where we lived.”