I have no memory of my father being arrested.

My first memory of any of it is my mother taking me to the main railway station in Prague and leaving me there with an army officer I did not know. I remember him, although not with certainty, as podplukovník Svoboda, a lieutenant colonel. I was five years old.

She left me with him in the main lobby of the station. I was scared when she left me there.

I think somebody told me at the station that my father had been arrested, but I am not sure of that, and at that age the word did not mean anything to me.

Then we went out to the train. It was a military train, full of soldiers and equipment, going to Vrchlabí. I was the only little child on it. The soldiers were nice to me and they entertained me, and from then on it was fun. I became the king of the train. It was the first time in my life that I travelled alone.

Svoboda took me to his home in Vrchlabí. His wife had one or two young children, and at least one of them was still in a baby carriage.

I do not know whether I stayed there several weeks or several months.

I behaved very badly toward Mrs. Svoboda. I screamed, and I acted unhappy about whatever she did for me. We went on walks and the mountains there were beautiful and I enjoyed them, but I made sure that she did not know that.

I do not remember Svoboda being at home much, since he was stationed somewhere up in the mountains. When there was a thunderstorm, Mrs. Svoboda told me that her husband was shooting cannons at the clouds to break them up.

Eventually my mother came with my sister Jana to get me, and we stayed there a few days. There was pumpernickel, which I liked, and I pretended that I hated it.

I never saw any of them again.

Much later I wanted to find out who they were, so that I could thank Mrs. Svoboda and apologize to her for the way I had behaved. By then my father was dead and my mother was losing her memory. I had waited too long.