“One of the most notable people I really became friends with was Ota Pavel née Popper, a distant relative. He is the favorite writer of many Czechs. Originally he wrote sports reports, but by the time I met him he had already found his style and subjects. He often wrote about his father, who was an original of the kind often found in Czech literature, or he wrote about the Berounka (Beraun) river, the landscape around it and the carp in it. Because he was a so-called half-breed and still very young during the protectorate, he was not deported to Theresienstadt. Ota was fun-loving and had a great sense of humor. Over time, I found out that he was manic-depressive and at times a little confused. The last time I saw him was when his wife Vera brought me to live with him in Ricany, where he was staying with his mother at the time. He died shortly afterwards of a heart attack.
Over time, I got to know so many people in Prague - scientists and others - that I had to neglect an increasing number of sympathetic and also helpful people, willy-nilly.”
Source: Wilma and Georg Iggers, Zwei Seiten der Geschichte. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002, p. 297f (translation)