Marie Ševčíková

"We were driving through Libava at night and we had a small Fiat. My dad and I were in the front and the back seat was full of samizdat covered with a blanket. And because it was always cold at night, I used to take this big loose coat and gradually put sweaters under it as I got colder. And now we're driving along and suddenly there are police cars. And Daddy says, 'Well, just what we needed... We can't get caught. It's not that they're gonna arrest us, but you know how much this is, Maru?' It was weeks of work to make this, and now they would take it all away. And he says, 'You know what? You're gonna pretend, you're giving birth.' I was seventeen and I said I didn't know how to do it, and I couldn't lie. He told me to keep quiet, not to say anything, not to lie, because he knew I would have a bad conscience. And because I had this loose coat, he put all these sweaters in it, and I had such a belly. They stopped us and asked where we were going this late, and he says, 'I'm taking my daughter to the maternity ward!' They opened the car door, looked at me, I was scared to death, sweating profoundly, and when they opened the door I just went: 'Ohohoh!' Whereupon, they looked at me like: and now what... And Daddy says, 'Hurry, hurry, or she'll give birth here! Or do you know how to give birth?' And the one policeman looked at the other one and said, 'Do you know how to provide assistance during childbirth?' And one of the policemen turned to the other one and asked: 'Can you assist in childbirth?' And he said, he can't, that he was good at Marx-Leninism, but they don't need that stuff here after all. And I, because I was so scared, I was shaking, holding my stomach, sweat was pouring out of me, and I kept going, 'Oh, oh!' Maybe even if I was postpartum I wouldn't have played it any better. Even after four births. Back then I just prayed that it would work out somehow, and when they saw, they just asked what was under the blanket in the back. Daddy said equipment for the baby."

"All the political prisoners had a very strong faith in God. They believed that God had it in His hands. And they were always praying, even under torture. And I believe that they really received strength as a grace. I also firmly believe that God exists. I can't even imagine finding my way around in today's confusing world without faith. And they actually, those who had faith, lived by that faith. Whereas the communists lost everything, their ideals. And it was not an exception that they took their life in that prison, because they had no sense, why they were there, when they believed completely in some kind of a mythical world."