How my father didn’t want to join the communist party and was kicked out from his job after 1948
“Every Sunday my daddy used to go to Svatá Dobrotivá, as back then he was jobless and refused to join the party. And so he walked around with a rucksack and aunty, his sister, used to give him all sorts of things, such as milk or butter and he would bring it back home for us. We were grateful to her, as in fact she provided for us. My father never got any job position, as they always had their condition for him to join the party, and otherwise he´d remain jobless as a procurator.“
“Every Sunday my daddy used to go to Svatá Dobrotivá, as back then he was jobless and refused to join the party. And so he walked around with a rucksack and aunty, his sister, used to give him all sorts of things, such as milk or butter and he would bring it back home for us. We were grateful to her, as in fact she provided for us. My father never got any job position, as they always had their condition for him to join the party, and otherwise he´d remain jobless as a procurator.“
„A demarcation line was right between Rokycany and Holoubkov in a kind of a valley with a small stream. And whoever had a larger flat, as we lived in a villa, my parents had a three room flat, well so we had to accommodate German soldiers, well pardon me, actually the Russians. I remember for sure they said: ‚Give us your daughter, give them to us.‘ And my parents immediately took me to Prague and ever since I lived there as they had such manners… My mum though they were something special, so gave them white Damask lining on beds, with brocade atlases. And they lied in it with their shoes on, drunk much and left blood stains on the wall, that´s how it was…“
“We could rejoice from everything, you know that´s was it. And we honoured our parents a lot; listened to what mummy said, it was just like sacred. Even though we didn’t agree sometimes, but mummy said it, and that´s how it just was. And we worshipped them, as I said already. I used improper Czech and got a little slap for it, to address her properly as she is unique. At Christmas we used to pray kneeling, a ponderous walked around, and when he detoured, it was time for dinner. At noon there was fasting, it was only soup and dinner, it was the sacred evening. We ate potato salad, fish and schnitzel. And then the next day, it was god's feast and we was had a goose.“
Full recordings
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Praha 7, Domov speciální péče pro seniory, Kamenická, 23.02.2017
Milada Kovaříková, née Švamberková, was born in April, 1926 in Holoubkov. The family tradition went back to the noble family of Švamberk, who once owned the castle Krasíkov. After graduating both grades of the elementary in Holoubkov, she started in so called family school. In 1945 she experienced the arrival of the Red Army in Holoubkov and her parents had to protect her from an inappropriate behaviour of the Soviet soldiers by moving to Prague. Here she started working in the shopping mall Bílá labuť, and also worked as a model in the shopping mall Kotva. After war her father bought a flat in Kampa, where she lived for many years in the neighbourhood of many famous actors, such as Jan Werich, Josef Vinklář or Zdeněk Štěpánek. In 1950s she experienced her father´s persecution, as he refused to leave the catholic church and become a member of the communist party. All her life Milada Kovaříková preserved strong devotion to her beloved Kampa. She resourced strength and life stamina always from her faith in god. In 2017 she lived in the pensioner´s care centre in Kamenická street at Prague 7.
