František Vácha

"I was tremendously surprised that they didn't allow me to go on and study at a secondary school since I had very good marks on my school leaving diploma. The national committee didn't grant it. I had already submitted an application for an agricultural school in Březnice. My dad was very upset and he would send letters to various institutions asking for redress. We received a wonderful answer from the Rudé právo. Their response counted four lines and contained six grammatical mistakes. It reads that as soon my parents will re-educate me in the spirit of socialism, I'll be admitted to study."

"I stole one picture when I was going through the material after 1992 at the police station. There were four photos and I took one of them. I'm depicted with a bucket and a hat. You can read on the picture 'Moscow – 2500 km'. I'm making an arrow. It was a beautiful time. You had, for instance, truck drivers driving by, who had flags on their trucks. He stopped and asked me if he may continue before it will dry. It was a time of a wonderful civic spirit. But it faded away after the normalization."

"It wasn't my parents who taught me to live a different way of life, it was the people who were harming me, it was the regime that taught me to live my life in my own way. This taught me not to like the Communists and I feel this way to this day. I have a serious reason for this."

"You become very calm, peaceful and happy. You sit down in front of the museum, smoke your pipe and talk to the youngsters, telling them how life works. I tell the young people to be decent in life, not to swear and to be modest. They must not expect to have everything they want by tomorrow. Then they can make peace with life and be satisfied like I am."