Anna Butová

* 1928  †︎ 2020

  • „Když k nám přišli, tak já jsem stála s tatínkem u šicího stroje a ten Banderovec byl venku, ne vevnitř. A tatínek je dovnitř nechtěl pustit dovnitř a ten jeden říkal: 'pokaž je' a tatínek říkal 'polska policia? Jestli vy jste polska policia tak si běžte pro předsedu a předseda přijde s vámi tak já vás pustím.' Jenomže my jsme měli takového bláznivého Mitrofána, který hlídal les, náš les. Ten Mitrofán, když ti Banderovci vtrhli do kuchyně a tatínkovi pistoli dával k nosu, tak já jsem dělala rámus, brečela jsem. Bylo mi málo let. A tatínek mi říkal: Schovej se pod postel, to aby mě neviděli. Tatínek pod tím oknem stál dál. U toho šicího stroje. A já jsem tam vlezla s mou sestrou Miluškou a tam jsem usnula. Tak už nevím jaké to bylo, ale pak přišel tatínek a říkal, že pan Novák už je v Pánu. Tři rány dali do gůry a zabili Nováka.“

  • "Dad dressed him up. Dad bought him a suit, shoes, everything. And when he went, he said to him, 'Grisha, go through Poland.' And when he went through Poland, he met Sarah. When Sarah and Grisha met, they immediately fell in love. And Sarah was ours. Pretty girl she was."

  • "Pepa went to the woods to gather firewood. Once he was pulling with two horses, he couldn't handle it. As the horses pulled, they shook behind the two stumps. Pepa wanted to help them, but the horses wouldn't let him. And as he pulled his horse, his heart collapsed."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Dvůr Králové nad Labem

    (audio)
    duration: 01:31:18
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
  • 2

    Dvůr Králové nad Labem, 23.07.2020

    (audio)
    duration: 01:01:34
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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If they had found Grisha, the family would have faced a certain death

contemporary photo of Anna Butová
contemporary photo of Anna Butová
photo: Archiv Anny Butové

Anna Butová was born on 13 August 1928 into the Tomíček family in the village of Kněhynky in Volhynia (sometimes referred to as Kněhyninky) in Volhynia in what was then Poland. Her parents farmed over 80 acres of land and also employed a number of domestic workers and maids. Anna first went to a Polish school in Kněhynka and later attended a Czech school in Lutsk located seven kilometres away. The area was governed by the Soviets during the war years, since 1941 by the Germans, and since 1944 Volhynia definitely joined the Soviet Union. Anna’s father Alexander Tomíček lost his son while working in the forest, and maybe that is why he decided to save a Jewish boy named Griša. This refugee from Poland got into the lucky ghetto because of his background, and shortly after the Czech farmers hid him in a barn, all interned Jews were executed. Griša’s family hid for three years and for some time they were also hiding a Russian prisoner from the Germans. After the war, Father sent Grisha to Palestine and never saw him again. The communists called the family gulags, so the witness’s parents decided to return to Czechoslovakia. However, Anna married Soviet soldier Fyodor Buta and did not return to Czechoslovakia until the 1960s. She worked in the textile company Tiba in Dvůr Králové nad Labem. She raised two daughters and a son in Dvůr. In 1995, she received a newspaper ad in which a certain Cvi Goldgammer sought his rescuers from the war. The witness called him, and Zvi soon invited her to visit Israel. She set out with her granddaughter and spent ten days with Cvi. In 1997, together with her father (in memoriam), she was included among the Righteous Among the Nations, people who were involved in saving the Jews during World War II. Anna Butová died at the end of August 2020 in Diakonia care centre in Dvůr Králové nad Labem.