Childhood in a whirl of national passions in the area of Těšín
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Emilie Pytelová née Bocková was born on 9 March 1931 in the village of Nýdek in Těšín Silesia, not far away from Polish borders. They spoke the Polish dialect at home, however, the family considered themselves Czechs. The Pytels were the black sheep among the citizens of Nýdek who in the majority felt like Poles. Ethnic discord peaked there in the autumn of 1938 when Poland annexed the area of Těšín while Czechoslovakia was recovering from the Munich shock. Part of the Pytel family had to escape and Polish officers evicted Emilie and her mom to a dugout shelter in a forest. Paradoxically, the beginning of WWII brought relief to the family because they were able to return home again. The only thing that spoiled the family’s happiness was the fact that brother Janek was given Polish citizenship and was sent to forced labours in Germany. When the family managed to get him German citizenship, he was sent to the front. The last letter that the family received from him was from Stalingrad. He was believed to be missing since that time. After the war, Emilie Pytelová started to work in a field that attracted her since her childhood - she became a shoemaker in the nationalised Baťa factories (from 1949 called Svit). In Zlín (Gottwaldov from 1949) she met her future husband with whom she later moved to Ruprechtov in the area of Vyškov where she still lived in 2022.
