APRIL 1941: My mother runs through the flat crying and carrying a woollen blanket. Everyone is speaking Czech. I'm the only one of the family who didn't learn Czech in Prague and now the grown-ups always use it when they don't want me to understand. Later I discover that my father was denounced and kept in prison by the Gestapo for a year.

MAY 1941: After a two year apprenticeship at a newspaper, conscription into the wartime labour programme brings my career plans to an end. It is very hard work for us women, the men are away at war.