Lubomír Šik

“The uncle I was talking about was a diplomat in Athens and Smyrna, so he came and gave us advice not to make any scenes at home, not to cry - not to warn ourselves that it was dangerous. That they could just send us away for that. So we followed it accordingly. Rather, we disappeared from the house. The check was practically without us. Then suddenly the shop was closed, mother was taken away, leaving us alone. Even that seems strange to me today, but I was not interested in what happened to the children they knew nothing about. We were left without resources. I was 16 years old, sister 14, so we were basically children and suddenly we had to take care of ourselves.”

“Our people thought about emigrating. One Litovel traveler, Mr. Nerušil, returned from South America and offered to be a broker and head of the expedition to Argentina. At that time, it offered some land to immigrants free of charge, provided they commit themselves to cultivating it for a certain period of time, etc. But it was definitely not an easy decision. They did not speak any Spanish, had two small children at home and primarily were not farmers. To do something like this was a difficult decision, and it took a long time until the protectorate came and of course all was lost.”

“We found out about what was happening on Narodni Avenue when students from Prague were arriving, but also from Palacký University, they came to us and informed us.” - “And the Civic Forum was already established?” – “That was in the first week before the [general] strike. We who gathered to welcome them made first contacts with them. For example, they brought a video shot from Národní třída. We projected this in the first week before the meeting in the shop window. So there was such information here.”

“There was a long-wave transmitter in Litovel, which was originally set up, I do not want to say just for the interference of foreign radio, which he did, but it was meant for the dissemination of meteorological data. And when it came to the entry of Soviet troops, the state Czechoslovak Radio broadcasted secretly, you certainly know that. And the technicians came up with the idea of taking over the state broadcasting and breadcasting it over long waves, bringing it all over Europe, and even overseas, because it was a powerful transmitter that really had those options. This was the main content of the radio broadcasting of Ječmínek. However, Litovel protests have added that so many people join in. The editorial staff was Pavel Dostál, a well-known official in Olomouc, and others who sent their contributions, and these things were then broadcasted via Radio Ječmínek.”