Jana Štroblová

"When I was still at Albatros publishin house - originally National Publisher of Children's Literature – I met a censor who could not properly speak Czech. I argued in favour for publishing of a poem by Halas How the Dove Came to the Collar. I worked on a new selection of Halas's poetry and I wanted to publish texts that had not been published before. The censors banned this poem. The dove came to the collar in such a way that the dove did not want to rock the Infant-Jesus and Mary bound her to the cradle, so it got its collar in the way. The censor defended his decision by saying: ,Czech children not like Infant Jesus.'"

"There were May festivities in 1956. It was surprising and, in a way, exuberant and high-spirited. I remember Ivan Klíma dressed as a kulak or Jiří Čutka. It was rather remarkable, he was an assistant-professor at the Department of Marx-Leninism and was dressed as a millionaire. They were driven on a kind of allegorical vehicle which represented the parasites and negative characters in literature. I walked by with a barred box. At the last moment I was given the placard, it was libri prohibiti, and I was followed by the Jesuit censor Koniáš. The chairman of the party organization rushed to my placard, wrenching it from my hand. I still vividly remember his sweat and desperation as he was fighting it. This drew the attention of reporters and a picture of me with the box was published in Le Monde in Paris. And I was harassed by the police at university.