Josef Tvrzník

"Then I came out of the technical college and Harus began to act. He was a member of the parliament, who claimed we will not do any philistine trincets, which is a useless, but build a heavy industry. And in 1949 they were liquidating bijou factory in Jablonec. But those were billions of losses done in the city. The Germans built such amazing base for industry with precision, accuracy and perfection and we were just binning it. Lifetime work was being putted into scrap! In 1952 (the communists – editor` s note) were building technical school. It was so well equipped, that even though I worked there for for 45 years, I worked on it and knew what it was supposed to look like, we never got back to the 1945 level. Any material technique, in all aspects (after war – editor` s note) was there in the technical school. And we cancelled it all in 1952. Imagine, that after war we did something like that! You know, whoever from those youngsters didn` t experience it, could not imagine it at all! It was crazy! In 1960 we figured that we could produce (bijou – editor` s note) for the Soviet Union. So we created Jablonex, export company. We built it near the dam. Behind it we built bijou factory (Jablonecka bijou – editor` s note) and there we were making from the leftovers we collected the same bijou, although it was a matter of fashion. We worked with the old machines… with old pressing machines and only changing it slightly from time to time."

"In 1945 our Czech boys took it down (the statue of knight Rüdiger at the Upper square in Jablonec nad Nisou – editor` s note). As during the war and before that he was always a knight, who was against violence. And he was encouraging Germans not to let themselves be raped by the Czechs! That was the gro of it! There was always some… some kind of organisation like NSDAP and all those parties they had, they always focused on the Rüdiger statue. It was all the same: ,Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil.‘ All the swastikas, fanatised people, mass of manipulated folks screaming… And all those torches! When I remember the statue, I always remember the issues around it, always some celebrations. It was a symbol of theirs. As I said, it was a symbol of no humiliation nor oppression! That was the idea behind it. For those, who agreed and who (now – editor` s note) fight, it was a beautiful statue… I say of course, it was a beautiful statue. But now it is fifteen years since the end of war (in May, 2016 it was 71 years – editor` s note) and we were not able instead of the statue… those Czech boys, we familiar boys took the Rüdiger down… And we Czechs in Jabloncec were not able to do anything properly Czech in fifteen years. It was… the idea… was terrible for me. You know I remember all those things… well I do not have a good feeling about it. Sometimes I tell myself that people are unteachable. You know why? Look at those parties in Slovakia; just very similar to those henlein folks with torches!"