Anna Šebková

* 1954

  • "We went shopping on Wenceslas Square, where one of the demonstrations was held, and I liked it very much at the time. We were actually shopping there with my three-year-old son, down on Wenceslas Square, and suddenly people started shouting that water cannons were coming from above and below, that they were coming at all the demonstrators. And now I stayed there among the people and suddenly they all started shouting: 'Watch out, watch out, make way!' And I only got through because of the alley that those people made for us, so I got into the middle of Wenceslas Square to the metro and I could get down to the metro with the child. Because otherwise the water cannons were pushing from above and below, and actually I probably would have stayed there with the child if they would have sprayed us, I guess."

  • "In the old days - I don't know if you know this, but I'm sure you do - they used to write reports, and each of us siblings not only had it on our report that we were a religious family. But back in '68, when scouting opened up, we were joining scouting, and during the time of normalization, even that part was put on the report that we were attending an anti-state organization."

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    Praha, 12.01.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 22:21
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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I came out of it well

Anna Šebková, 2023
Anna Šebková, 2023
photo: Post Bellum

Anna Šebková was born on 21 April 1954. Her family was religious, which negatively affected her and her four siblings in their political profile. Added to this was joining a scout troop during the Prague Spring. She experienced the August invasion of Warsaw Pact troops intensely, remembering the great fear, the tanks, and armoured vehicles in Prague’s Grébovka Park, and the terror of tanks with machine guns passing by. She finished primary school in 1969 when the normalisation vetting processes were not yet in full swing, and she was able to start her dream job, as a nurse. Her younger siblings were not so lucky. After graduating from school, she joined an orphanage where she worked for many years. In 2023 she lived in Prague.