Marta Košťálová

* 1924

  • “I was also totally deployed." - "And where?" - "In Karlin, in CKD Dukla Karlín. And that was exactly, where I got a workbook, there in that drawer, and that was just the job. There were Siebely airplanes for the Siebely airliners. Well, it was terrible. It operated in three shifts. First, we had to learn what to do; how to rotate the sheets from this stainless steel sheet. Dural, I think, was named. Dural. Not alright, no. And there was one more, but I remember in a moment. And there I was until the war, yeah, when the end of the war came. I can show you the book, then I'll show it to you, I have it right here. “-“That must have been hard for you, that kind of job. “-“First of all, it was a bit strenuous. We did not pick up the hard stuff, it was lifted by the crane. But the work itself was tough. And there were six hundred air hammers there. Everything was riveted. These were rivets that were in the freezer, somewhere in the freezer, as they say today. In the freezer. And they had to be frozen. And you had to tie up that sheet of dirk on the base. You know. We had to drill those sheets on that base like this.”

  • "The worst thing was the darkening of the windows at night. When I walked out of the night shift at ten o'clock, as it was said, it was the worst. Because the trams had everything marked, all masked blue. They either had some sort of curtains or just something like that, it was disguised. There could not be a single light on. They wereimmediately alarmed and as soon as the light shone, it had to go out."

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    Domov pro seniory Chodov (Donovalská 2222, Praha 11), 14.11.2017

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    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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Of course, I missed home. I even cried.

Marta Košťálová (1940s)
Marta Košťálová (1940s)

Marta Košťálová was born on 24 October, 1924. Her father was a couchman, her mother was an assistant in a legal company. During WW2 she was already married and her husband was sent to the forced deployment to Mannheim. Herself she was forced to labour in ČKD Dukla Karlín. In 1946 her first son was born and twelve years later the second one. Especially in 1960s she was publically active, as she became a member of the parliament, worked at the Prague castle and was a member of the Czechoslovak Women Association. Due to her ideals she wished to enter the communist party, but her registration was not accepted. In 1981 she retired and has been living in the retirement home for the last two years.