Anna Galovičová

* 1950

  • “The guys who came showed up at that time when it was clear that the regime had fallen. Was it in time after the general strike? Yes, that's when they showed up, they introduced themselves to me anyway, they came in a group, not one at a time, they came to help us. I say, you are welcome, because every hand is needed, and they say that it is now at such a stage that it would be good already, I will say, some committees that would coordinate with Bratislava. Well, I'm saying, it's definitely necessary and it's very good to coordinate like this. They asked for the list, I didn't give them a book anymore, the notebook with the black cover, but I wrote them everything. How many businesses? Eighty, minimum. The notebook was almost full. I made those contacts before, so that Anka would call it, so that we could call, when something new had to be hung up again, glued in those companies, notice boards, and so on. So we had, of all the names, what I wrote there, and then we had such a distillation, because several came from one company. Gradually, over the weeks, we made it clear so much that I should call him and him. Because he has a phone on his desk, so we made it clear. I can say again that I gave them a list then, and the next day the building was empty.”

  • “That is what we projected to those students. They came on saturday, we projected, friday or saturday, I don't know anymore, it was like that we projected, the weather was rainy and cold, annoyingly, we were warm there. And the young people from Bratislava came and now they are saying if they can show their videotape. We just had a video player running and I'm saying what you have there, but what's happening now in Prague, what's happened. I say, well, we ask the students if they will wait here or we will continue watching. Let them give what they brought, so we gave. In the meantime, they ran out and started calling people to the Little Stage, we're showing it there, I can say we were shocked. The battle and the dead, the intervention. They kept going, even the students started leaving and started bringing their parents, neighbors. It was projected all night. It had a high intension, that weekend was right for this. I didn't come home for two days. The recording lasted about half an hour.”

  • “I was supposed to interpret. But when this happened, I was called to the embassy, ​​where two men I didn't even know took my hands, started twisting them, took my bag, took my bag because they wanted me to fly immediately on that day. Once a week a plane flew, so they will take me to the airport and I have to leave in three hours and I was only there with a bag. I say, I don't even have a passport with me, so I can't fly away. They would put me on a plane somewhere. Literally like with some intelligencer or I don't know what. They took my bag, emptied everything, scrabbled, and looked for something. I used to have big handbags, because I put books and everything there. I have notes, I write everywhere. They didn't find a passport, so they say let me go home for a passport, they will come for me and take me to the airport. I didn't go home, I gave the echo, the man with the children left immediately, I went to my french teacher. He was a Frenchman.”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Piešťany, byt Anny Galovičovej, 12.11.2020

    (audio)
    duration: 01:48:26
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th century
  • 2

    telefonicky, 19.12.2020

    (audio)
    duration: 21:31
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th century
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

“There are moments, when man must not be broken. Because then, it is very difficult to straighten the spine.”

Anna Galovičová was born on October 1, 1950 in Bratislava. She comes from the working class. At the primary school, she held the position of president of the school pioneer organization of the Czechoslovak Youth Union. She continued in this position at the secondary school of economics. The incursion of the Warsaw Pact troops captured the memorial during a trip in Bulgaria. She graduated from Karlova University in Prague with a degree in psychology. In her first year, she became interested in yoga. For this reason, she took her first interrogation at the State Security Service. At that time, she definitely realized the wrong direction of the company. She married in 1971 and took her first trip to Western Europe with her husband Peter. After graduating from school, she joined the penitentiary in Hlohovec and promoted yoga with inmates. From 1980 to 1985, she lived in Algeria, where her husband worked as a business adviser. Due to the invitation of the Indian rabbi, she was contacted by the State Security Service with the intention of forcing her to come to her homeland immediately, which it did not succeed in doing. In the same year, she traveled to India for the first time under dramatic circumstances. She also contacted the Yoga group in daily life and carried out several activities in it. She was employed as an edifying worker at the Municipal Cultural Center in Piešťany. Here, in 1989, she was caught by social changes and became the leader of the Gentle Revolution in the Piešťany region. After taking over the management of the VPN (note: Public Against Violence) another group, she won the competition for the position of director of the Municipal Cultural Center. She remained in position for two years and her next career was as a freelance psychologist. Shortly after the outbreak of the revolution, the Society of slovak-indian friendship founded the first non-profit in Slovakia. She is the boss, from its foundation. She is also active in the Slovak Network against Poverty, where she also holds the position of director. She is also the ambassadress of the Forum of world religions in Slovakia.