Miloslav Tlapák

“I remember, although the memories are vague, actors and others who arrived in the kitchen, as I was there often with my mum. Many actors and other important people, not just actors, use to come for recipes. They came to the kitchen, thanked for the delicious lunch and left some money, as it was something that was just done. Either to send money or to come in person to the kitchen, thank or ask for the recipe. In this it was nice.”

“On May 8, early in the morning, my dad returned from Prague, Lucerna, where he was with Havel all the time. It was 7 or 8, I can’t remember exactly, and someone rang a bell since the doors were locked. Someone called at the main gate and my dad said he would go and open. So he went, my mum told him not to go, but he did. And there were four German soldiers, three or four. I remember the moment when my mum shouted at him, ‘Jenda, don’t go with them, the war has ended.’ This stayed in my memory and it was the last time I saw him.”

“As I said, I was in touch with Věra all the time. In 1965, when it was possible for the first time to travel west – well, perhaps it was in 1964 but I went in 1965 – I and my two friends from Škoda told ourselves that we would try, ask for the foreign currency assurance and would go to Switzerland and Italy. I told myself: great, we’ll go to Switzerland and I will call on Věra, my cousin. We made an effort to get the foreign currency assurance, we obtained it, but it took so much work, so much bureaucracy was involved. When the money was promised, you needed approvals to go. At Škoda, you needed about ten stamps, proving that you have not borrowed a hammer from the factory, for instance. You needed a stamp from your residential confidant, all kinds of things. What was worst was that you had to go the the military office and they had to give a stamp. But they would always say: ‘Well, but a military exercise is planned for you when you want to go.’ So you had to ask them to shift the exercise, which they usually did.”