Kamil Zajíček

“There was this twentieth anniversary so we had to pay a homage to this great man. So we organised a football match to honour his memory. We would invite a few friends. And I would buy some flowers and those who didn´t play would go and lay bunches of flowers on the grave. Those who came back told us that they were all around, that there were policeman patrolling, not letting people to the graveyard. However, me and my brother, we went there as well. And we us, we had been carrying a petition we had written to Husák. We wrote him a letter, stating what we didn´t like. Of course, we had mentioned human rights, the Charter 77, that Václav Havel had to be released from prison and so on. And they would confiscate it and file it immediately. Right after that they would do a house search, finding several other materials. So we had been prosecuted. But I had already been living with my friends n Opava back then so I had been in contact with the Chater 77 people. And when they heard on the Radio Free Europe that they had arrested the Huška brothers and they are prosecuting them, Ivo Mludek from Opava asked me whether I wanted them to help me, that VONS was engaged in such kind of things and that he believes they would help me. So thanks to VONS, we had been pardoned at last.”

“There were these boys living in the high rises and for me, they had been what I wanted to become. Long hair, jeans, they were so free and unrestrained human beings. And if you would decide to look like one of them, then you would. I never had much hair on my head, and despite the fact that it made me sad, I compensated by living with people who were like me, bald and fat, but nice. And as the clothing was concerned, it was obvious. The worse you would look, the more you would be appealing for some people and they would take you in. 'A's were the boys ten or more years older, and we were calling ourselves 'B's. And we had been telling ourselves that one day maybe we would become 'A's. Of course, the boys got soft as they came back brainwashed from our glorious Czechoslovak People´s Army, and then my time had come. I might say I was one of the leading máničkas in Vítkov. The culture and the whole culture of life had been deeply connected with that of course. Which means that we were not at home at all. All the time, we would go out to meet friends. To South Moravia, to Praha or to 'New Jersey' – to Nový Jičín and Opava.”

“During such a raid a policeman would come, he would check your ID, and when he was in a bad mood, he would hit you with a baton and take you into the police van. Then they would drive you out of the city to the fields and they would throw you out. And when they were in a bad mood, they would smash your face. We didn´t know where we were. Looking back now I consider it a beginning of my tourist career. So I should be grateful. They had shown me the way I am following till today, that I am a walker and I love to walk.”