Some did not hesitate to jump from a plane to leave the country

Crucial events take place amid banalities like fruit preserves and frying crackling, says playwright Viliam Klimáček who wrote a book about Czechoslovak emigrants.

Viliam KlimáčekViliam Klimáček (Source: Sme - J. Jakubčo)

Viliam Klimáček wrote a novel, Hot Summer of 68, based on dozens of interviews he conducted with people who emigrated from Slovakia following the Warsaw Pact invasion. A new version of the story will be presented on stage to mark the 50th anniversary of the event in Bratislava.

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When the tanks arrived to Czechoslovakia, you were only ten years old; but you experienced the first part of your professional life in the era of so-called “normalisation”. Have you ever considered emigrating?

Read also: August 1968: After a temporary thaw, the Czechoslovak borders were sealed Read more 

Viliam Klimáček (VK): No. There were a few reasons, but mostly because of my brother who left for western Germany in 1983. He was a musician and found it very hard there. Ultimately, he committed suicide. Only my mum was allowed to attend his funeral, I had to stay at home with my father – the communists probably feared all of us could flee Czechoslovakia. From then, my relation to the communist regime was very, very cold. But I think that every Slovak family has some link to emigration. People used to leave abroad for work a hundred years ago just as they do today.

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In Hot Summer 68, one of the characters grows grey hair overnight in which she and her husband must decide whether to send their daughter to Vienna with just a small suitcase. When a young student, another character in the book, learns that occupation armies have invaded Czechoslovakia, she sits on the ground and starts eating mud. Are these stories authentic?

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