I was 14 years old when we were forced to leave Slovakia
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Anna Novotná, née Vaňková, was born in Piešťany on 15 June 1924. Her father Josef Vaněk made his living as a joiner. He initially worked in Vienna, then in Piešťany where he met Helena née Maráčková. Three children were born. Anna was the middle child. The father was Czech and the mother was Slovak. Anna grew up during the First Republic era; the mother was a housewife, raising the children and making extra money washing clothes on the side. Anna completed her high school education in 1938; the Munich Agreement was signed the same year. Czechs were no longer welcome in Slovakia after the formation of the Slovak State in 1939. The family relocated to Bohemia and settled in Zlín. Anna Novotná worked at Mr Kopecký’s clothes shop and men’s clothes repair workshop, and made shoes at Baťa later on. She was on forced deployment twice in the 1944–1945 period, at first in Zschopau, Germany and then in Nová Paka. She returned home in April 1945. She married Adolf Novotný in 1947, and the couple raised three children. The witness worked at the Rudý říjen national enterprise in Gottwaldov in 1954–1988. She was living in Zlín at the time of recording in 2022.
