Ing. Jan Janda

"Because I was young, in love with a girl who was in Germany at the time and was returning home by train to Smichovské nádraží on August 21, I wanted to meet her, of course. But all the bridges in Prague were occupied by Russian tanks or it was the Warsaw Pact army, so it was anybody who was slant-eyed and I don't know what kind of... For example, we didn't get along with anybody at all when we wanted to discuss, because these guys were looking at us, they didn't understand at all. We spoke Russian to them, of course. Well, I was trying to get across the railway bridge at Smichov eventually and I came across a soldier there and he fired a volley over my head with his machine gun like that and I was running away. So that was my experience in August."

"So that was my result - because I couldn't really get into high school, my dad, because he was a lawyer, even though he was of course fired in Benešov, was simply erudite and kept writing to the president of the republic, Mr. Novotný at the time. And then, given that the year 1967/1968 was approaching, when the political tension was easing, finally last August, when everyone else was starting high school, I was told by the president's office that I could exceptionally participate in an interview for the technical school in Dušní Street, which I passed successfully and thus I could study at high school."