When I was 7, my family left Czechoslovakia because things had became progressively worse in the 20 years since it was occupied by the Russians – there was no freedom of speech, and they had slowly obliterated the Czech way of life. Fleeing was very risky at that time because children officially belonged to the state, and if caught we might have been taken away from our parents. In actual fact, after we left, my Mum was sentenced to two years in prison for kidnapping her own children!
My parents told the authorities we were just going on holiday to Yugoslavia . . .