Truth, courage and composure are important
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Jana Pecková, née Králová, was born on 12 March 1938 in Malešov near Kutná Hora. Her father ran a sweet shop in the town, her mother helped him with small jobs and took care of the household, a small farm and three children. All her siblings attended Sokol. At the end of the war, when Malešov was being liberated by the Red Army, her mother healed a soldier they found in the garden. When the communists came to power, they took away the Králs’ trade. Dad had to work as a watchman in a factory, then as a warehouse keeper and finally he rode a bicycle with the post. Mum was not able to get a job, and eventually she cleaned in the hospital. She had to walk home from work every day, which took a toll on her health. She remembers how emotional she and her mother were during the execution of Milada Horáková. Jana Pecková graduated from secondary school in Kutná Hora and the Faculty of Education in Prague, majoring in mathematics and physics. She began teaching in Ústí nad Labem, where she met her husband, married and raised two children. They were both members of a boating club, and when the Warsaw Pact troops invaded the country on 21 August 1968, they were about to go down the Lužnice River. Between the tanks, they were then returning across the country to Ústí nad Labem. Her brother-in-law emigrated immediately after the war to West Germany and later to England, and they were not allowed to see him until 1985. When her husband and son demonstrated against the regime in Letná in November 1989, she herself was with her children at a school trip. Yet she felt joy and great euphoria at the change. In 2024, Jana Pecková was living in her family home in Malešov.
