Ivan Šesták

We have immediately befriended kids at the school, because children are honest. Among the adults, there were people who sympathised with us, and then also people who treated us anti-state criminals. My mother worked in a stocking room, knitting socks. She was in charge of about eight weaving machines. She recalled that there were women many in the Communist Party and they were very active. They regularly attended the meeting and considered it very important. It was at a time when the political processes were broadcasting on the radio, and those people were asking for the harshest punishments for traitors to socialism. They were broadcasting the trial with Babicky on the radio, and my mother was sitting there crying. The main one got the death penalty and his wife for about 8 or 10 years, and the women said, 'They should have hung her, the beast.' They were thinking about mommy, too. So it wasn't easy there, but there some good people."

"He didn't like going back to it because the interrogations were terrible. The first days he was at state security, then in Leopoldov, and Ilave, which was the harshest prison. When he was convicted, they put him in Opava, where he was an expert in the so-called "Prison Project". There were people, who designed. They worked on the development of Tatra 138 and various things used in the national economy. There were people who were available 24 hours, all sentenced to many years. My father also met friends, who later became close to him there – impriosned hockey players, Boza Modry and others...Otherwise, of course, I remember that once a year or every six months we went to visit him. My mom could always take one child with her, so I got to visit Opava about two or three times, where we could have been for half or three quarters of an hour, it was separate and there was a guard there, so we wouldn't say anything anti-state... He never wanted revenge on anyone, and he didn't want anyone else to experience it."

"Already in 1968 I was a construction manager on the bridge over the Little Danube in Tomášov. In the summer the construction of the bridge over the Danube in Bratislava started. So I was there, too. We had a resort on the right bank of the Danube in Petržalka and on the twenty-first I went to work. The bridge was occupied by Russian tanks. I was riding a motorcycle between those tanks. I was, like everyone else, angry that this could have happened. I was in front of the University then, on the 21st August, at noon when three people were shot there. I have experienced it all from close proximity. They shot three people. One girl, maybe 11 years old, and captain Holik... they aimed at people, and whoever was in „v hladaciku“ was shot. Until this day, the hole after bullets are visible in front of the university. The holes were left there on purpose, as a commemoration. People were full of dissapointment and helplesness. It’s sad to stand in front of a tank. Schools are not teaching about this enough todat. People have other interests.“