"When the year 1968 came, this small guy... Pepik, husband's brother, who was four years younger... so they were visiting my mum near Nuremberg in Germany. And when the year 1968 came, they stayed there and never came back. Of course, we were having a lot of problems due to that - and especially my husband in the army. Even my son, who went to school, he was always in trouble. Especially when he went to serve obligatory military service, they found out that he had an uncle ... supposedly ... who sent him something. He never sent anything to him because we ceased any contact after he left. But they kept asking him, "How about the uncle?´"
"When I counted, it is down there... six, seven... upstairs eight, nine, ten... thirteen people. Five families, if counted correctly, as there was our great-grandmother too."
„Stalo se to tak, že on [bratr] pracoval v papírnách a dostal předvolávací rozkaz, aby se dostavil na vojenskou správu do Mladé Boleslavi. Tak on si vzal motorku a jel a přišly závory – přejezd železniční – a musel tam zůstat stát. Za ním přijelo ruské auto ze cvičení, údajně ten řidič usnul a srazil ho. Nebylo mu pomoci. Patří do skupiny lidí, co jsou evidovaní jako oběti invaze.“
„Když přišel ten pětačtyřicátý rok, tak vím, že právě jeden esesák... On byl taková vyšší šarže. Tam byla u nás taková rokle, když se šlo ke koupališti, a tam postřílel celou svou rodinu – děti, manželku i sebe. My jsme to ale brali tak, že mu to patří.“
„S tatínkem jsme šli dělat, jak bych to řekla, dříví do lesa. To bylo v Sudetech, to jsme museli mít zvláštní povolenku, to bylo přímo pod hradem Bezdězem, jak jsou ty lesy. Tam právě se nám jednou stalo, že najednou tam byli dva tři muži – přesně si to nepamatuju, ale vím, že jich bylo víc než dva – a to byli nějací partyzáni. Ale jestli to byli ruští, nebo ukrajinští, to nevím. Ale nic po nás nechtěli, jen jídlo.“
“I was in the trade unions and worked as a treasurer there, so I know what went on there. Too many times I had a problem agreeing with something, as those people were absolutely naive. Let me point out, the ones, who were down. Later, they were amazed how it all turned out. I remember the kind of pamphlet the chairman made. He wrote, how we will support them, how we will ... god forbid like in a communist society ... we will share everything. And you what was the end of it all? We had a meeting, and to tell the truth, everyone was afraid to vote for it. So people preferred not to attend it at all. Because there was such euphoria ... look, there, he did that...”
"I can tell you something regarding the learning book. In the year 1945, after the revolution, my classmate and I we dag out a hole under the eaves... we put them there and earth on top of them, let them rot down there.
One should always think about where it comes from, what background it has and what one can do
Libuše Procházková
photo: archive Libuše Procházkové / Jakub Zvoníček
photo: archive Libuše Procházkové / Jakub Zvoníček
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Libuše Procházková was born on 11 January, 1936 in Libavské Údolí near Cheb. Important are her memories of growing up during war in Bělá pod Bezdězem, as well as the memories of privatisation of Tesla after 1989, where she worked as an economist. Since 1944 until 1945 she could not attend school, as there were the “national guests” accommodated in it; those were ethnical Germans running from the Red Army. After war she studied gymnasium in Česká Lípa and during work she finished an economic training at the high school in Liberec. With her husband Otta Procházka they got a son.
