Anna Marxová

* 1926

  • „We ran from the low-flying bombers together with our cows and loaded meat in a bucket into the forest. And our mother was mowing in the field and some Black man was falling over her, he would have possibly killed her… he was American. He found it amusing that she was running away from him, that she was hiding behind hay stacks. And when the war ended, the Germans were disarmed on the hill that we lived on. They fled to the Americans, they did not want to go to the Russians… people would call the place 'Na prádle', there were some fields and that's where shootings happened. In Čížová they shot some guy named Veverka at some point and I don't know who else. Precisely because he wanted to disarm them. And our mother just finished milking, she was carrying milk, and as women back then used to wear wider skirts, something whizzed past her and it ended up being a bullet. Imagine that it flew through her skirt… it was ugly… thank God this is all behind us. I wish no one will have to go through this ever again…“

  • „On August 15, I started in Zlín, and I was only fifteen on the nineteenth. You know, the beginnings were hard, but there it was so elaborate, it was so researched ... First I went to school, where I learned all possible jobs. At first I did leather preparation and then I also worked in a workshop where children's shoes were made. I worked all sorts of jobs and eventually worked my way up to a skilled sewing of uppers. We did 1,200 pairs a day in one workshop and I sewed 400 of them myself. And after work we had fun, we went to school, it was called Baťa's School of Work. We went to get lunch and for that time and the misery of the war, I must say that they tried to feed us whatever they could get their hands on. We had a lot of fish and I learned to eat tomatoes there, which I did not eat before. They simply made an effort to provide us with everything possible. I even took dancing classes there, we all went to lunch together, we played sports. My parents didn't have to worry about me at all. The only thing was that I worked like crazy. We also had to do bookkeeping for the things we spent money on. Or if we wanted to go to the cinema or the theater, we had to submit a ticket and we had a book where we had to write, for example: 'I ask your kind permission to go to the cinema or theater.' Depending on where.“

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    Písek, 09.03.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 01:11:32
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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You feel good with us Czechs when we suffer, that’s when we all get along, but woe betide us feeling relieved

Anna Marxová (Vlášková) in youth
Anna Marxová (Vlášková) in youth
photo: Witness's archive

Anna Marxová, born Vlášková, was born in Zlivice near Písek on 19 August 1926 as the third of five children of the Vlašek family. After completing her basic education, she was accepted at the Baťa School of Work and in 1941 she left for Zlín. She completed a at the time very progressive and comprehensive system of education there, which prematurely ended due to the Zlín raid in October 1944. Due to the damage caused by the raid, part of Baťa’s production had to be moved. This is why she experienced the end of the war at home. She recalls the frequent raids by low-flying bombers in April and May 1945, the local fighting between German and Soviet soldiers in the immediate vicinity of her home, and other events connected with the liberation of southwestern Bohemia. After February 1948, like many others, she believed the promises made by the Communist Party, but gradually experienced disappointment, which deepened after the visit of the then Soviet Union. She married in 1947 and raised two daughters with her husband. Her husband was also a graduate of Baťa’s School of Work, but both eventually engaged in other professions. Anna Marxová is now a widow, she lived in the SeneCura home in Písek at the time of the filming of the interview (2019).