Eliška Ciklová

* 1929

  • “We were in Prague for the first time, you won't believe it, it was in the year 1990. Why? Because for the first time, it was allowed to say that the Western Bohemia has been liberated by the American army. And Western Bohemia celebrated it enormously, and some radio people were given the task of being there. Now transmitters have joined, such as West Bohemia and several. And now the Czech editors broadcast mainly and a little connection with the radio, the locals were preferred, of course. And that was the first time. You can hardly imagine what it meant to step on Czech grounds for the first time since 1968. It moves a person quite a bit, it really does.”

  • “The thing was that we happened to be on vacation in Yugoslavia. And we were on the island of Rab when August came. And then it was such a special moment, we were sitting outside somewhere, it was quite early in the morning and a certain family member came, such a tall, nice, old, grey-haired gentleman, who said: 'There are Russians in the Czech Republic.' Well, we almost did not believe because there had been manoeuvres before. You may have already been acquainted with this, that they came in the spring and did exercises. Well, when they left in July, it occurred to no one, so we celebrated. So we said, 'Well, they were there in June or July.' And the gentleman said: 'No, they're in the Czech Republic.' So we turned on the radio and only found out about the disaster.”

  • “The thing was that we happened to be on vacation in Yugoslavia. And we were on the island of Rab when August came. And then it was such a special moment, we were sitting outside somewhere, it was quite early in the morning and a certain family member came, such a tall, nice, old, grey-haired gentleman, who said: 'There are Russians in the Czech Republic.' Well, we almost did not believe because there had been manoeuvres before. You may have already been acquainted with this, that they came in the spring and did exercises. Well, when they left in July, it occurred to no one, so we celebrated. So we said, 'Well, they were there in June or July.' And the gentleman said: 'No, they're in the Czech Republic.' So we turned on the radio and only found out the disaster.”

  • Full recordings
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    Mnichov, 19.09.2020

    (audio)
    duration: 01:29:04
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

You can’t imagine what it meant to step on Czech ground after twenty years

Eliška Ciklová in 2020
Eliška Ciklová in 2020
photo: PNS

Eliška Ciklová (Cikl), née Žaloudková, was born on June 7, 1929 in Prague. She has been a member of Disman’s children’s radio ensemble since childhood, and has been involved in radio and later television throughout her professional life. After the February coup, she left the Disman’s (now Fučík’s) ensemble, but remained the editor of Czechoslovak Radio. She first worked in the children’s and youth department and met her husband Ivan Cikl there. In the 1960s, they worked together at Czechoslovak Television. In August 1968, they spent a holiday in Yugoslavia, where they learned about the occupation of Czechoslovakia. They did not return home and went to Norway, where Ivan Cikl got a job. They lived in Norway for two years and in 1970 moved to New Zealand, where Eliška worked in television. In 1978, the couple moved back to Europe, this time to Munich. Both worked at Radio Free Europe. After 1989, they considered returning home, but eventually did not return due to health reasons.