Libuše Šedinová

* 1936

  • “The year forty-four came, that was the Heydrich Repressions, and this one incident happened to me, that I was kidnapped. I was kidnapped by a seventeen-year-old girl. We left Vyškov, where I had been born, and she took me to Brno. She herself was not of age yet, and she was later sentenced to 2.5 years for the kidnapping. It must be said that it was during the Heydrich Repressions, in other words, everyone who accommodated us was basically risking being shot. When there was an air raid, the flats were empty, and we weren’t allowed into the cellar because we were not in evidence, so she had free reign then.”

  • “In Vyškov we lived in the hospital, which didn’t have a cellar where we could hide. Vyškov was declared a German city, there’s still a garrison there even today. So Vyškov got pretty blown up. Back in forty-four the Germans gave the order for the square - the displays - to be boarded up. But those last days, when the Germans were to be expelled, when they were to capitulate, the Germans themselves flew over Vyškov and dropped phosphorus bombs, so large parts of Vyškov burned to the ground. We fled from there to hide in a shelter, specifically, into the wine cellar under the parish house. And then came the liberation by the Soviet army. Except what happened was basically looting. We were also affected by it, because they entered the wine cellar, and people started taking wine up in baskets and drinking it, the soldiers that is. And girls, or young ladies, women, were asked to go peel spuds - that is, taters. Well, and various problems arose in consequence. So we formed a chain in that wine cellar, and bottles were broken and wine was poured into the drain...”

  • “The year forty-eight came, I was attending primary school in Děčín by then, of course, and our teacher came in, during art class, and said: ‘Right, and today we’re going to paint a Pioneer’s badge.’ We each painted a Pioneer’s badge, and then she said: ‘Now write >application< on it.’ We signed the picture, and we were Pioneers. Finito. At that time, because we were connected to the [Catholic] Church, my sister and I were members of the Catholic Youth Union. That was basically a kind of association, you could say that it was a self-education course. There was a Jesuit seminary in Děčín, where they had a faculty of arts. In the 1950s the faculty of arts was dissolved and all the professors were locked up. I knew one of them in person because he used to visit our family, he taught Spanish, Portuguese, Greek. Then he was employed as a pointsman...”

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    U pamětnice doma, Praha 7, 14.03.2017

    (audio)
    duration: 01:32:30
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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I live to the extent to which I am of benefit to others

Libuše Šedinová
Libuše Šedinová
photo: archiv pamětníka

Libuše Šedinová, née Skácelová, was born on 1 May 1936 in Vyškov. When she was eight, she was kidnapped by a seventeen-year-old girl, who took her to Brno. The police managed to find her after some time. She attended a secondary technical school. Her fiancé of the 1950s was arrested and sentenced to seven years in a show trial. She visited him for a long time, but in the end they split up. She married and had a son. She has worked in technical professions her whole life. As a pensioner she completed a “university of the third age” course, she attends lectures, she does research in archives, she sews dolls for UNICEF and owls for the Wise Owl association.