Bohumil Kovařík

"In February, the Olšaník family was arrested and in March, they went to get me, my father and my brother. Three months later, there was the trial. I was sentenced to eight years, my brother to six and my father to five. They had no evidence against my mum. One half of our homestead was confiscated by the state and the second one was gifted to the collective by my mummy. She wouldn't have been able to take care of it herself."

“Those comrades used to come in two persuading people, how great it is to farm together. My father didn’t let them in at all. He only talked shortly in front of the house and tried to end it quickly. Of course I knew, what was going on, and didn’t believe it, but was not really influenced. My school mate´s family got displaced from the house no. 4, the Kameníčeks. I don’t remember any other families, my brother would know as he still lives there. I packed my suitcase in 1969 and off to Austria and knew I would never come back.“

"Following the arrest, they brought us to Olomouc to pre-trial detention. There were three of us in one cell. For two weeks, nothing was happening - only time to time, they summoned us for an interrogation. There was one investigating officer present, and a recorder. At times, they threatened us. But they didn't ask much from me because they've had all the information already from the Olšaníks."

“When I opened the gate to the barn, our land went all the way to the forest. Then there were only four families left, so in order to get them to so called kolkhoz, they were given the worst land. Ours were farmed by the cooperative and instead of five minutes it took us almost an hour to get there. Despite the lower production of the land we had to give in the same ratios, as those with good land. It was counted based on the size of the farm. We were middle size farmers, from thirteen to fifteen hectares, so we could only just manage.“

"I spent the night in a waiting room at the train station. In the morning, at 4 a.m. when it became bright outside, I got out. In order not to be conspicuous, I only took a small suitcase with things for two days. I went to the money exchange and got 42 schillings for 100 crowns. That didn't make me rich. I had a goulash soup with a bread roll. I put my suitcase in the left luggage and went to have a look around Vienna. I sat down at a summer terace and because the night was hard, I fell asleep after a while. The waiter woke me up and asked me whether I was a tourist or whether I intended to stay. I told him I was staying."