Eva Salamonová

“Later I found some documents how my grandpa litigated to get his house. He won the trial, but they informed him, that even though they were about to return the house back to him, as it belongs to him and they took it illegally, they are unable to provide him with spare living, since other ‘comrades’ had been already living there. Until the end of their lives they couldn’t have returned to their house. Poor people had to end up in a senior house – grandma was in Bystrica. My grandpa was probably fed up with Bystrica, so he packed himself and left to a senior house in Brno, because there he had some friends.”

“Until today I cannot accept or understand that. It still fascinates me, how far one’s hatred and indifference can reach. Such silent majority. That is fascinating for me: you live, have neighbors, and back then the relationships were much closer – everyone knew the name of his neighbor. Back then, the neighbors visited each other, the kids played together and suddenly, from one day to another, those people were willing to shove you into a freight car and send you to gas. I shall never understand this. Moreover, they were ready to take your stuff, your table cloth, sheets, completely intimate things.”