Lýdie Šilarová

* 1953

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Progress: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
 
1x
  • "And then I found these beautiful big blue woolly hats. At the time, I had two little boys. They got up from their crib, completely naked, and they found the hats — so they put them on their heads and were absolutely thrilled to have them. Suddenly, the doorbell rang — and it was the election commission. The boys loved answering the door, and we had one of those flats with a shared hallway. So they ran to open it, completely naked, wearing just their hats. And there stood this large election commission — about five people. Then I came out behind them, heavily pregnant. And they said, ‘Ma’am, it’s election day, and you’re the last ones. It’s already Saturday and neither you nor your husband has voted — where have you been?’ And I said, ‘My husband’s not here,’ and I said, ‘I’m sorry.’ They kept insisting, and the kids were all excited and happy, and they even offered to help me get the children dressed. I said, ‘Even if you help me — I’m not going to vote.’ In the end, I think I convinced them that I was completely crazy. And as they were leaving, the kids went to the stairs to wave goodbye to them."

  • "And then I remember one time, and it was a nice experience too, after the 'chatter', Miloš Rejchrt came in and they all went home. And Miloš and I said goodbye for even longer, and there was talk that the Pope was about to be elected and that there was smoke coming out of the chimneys now and that it should be over by now. And that it would be fun if they elected Wojtyla. Because Wojtyla had been here before and he had problems with State Security officers, he knew everything about how things work here. And it would be fun if they elected Wojtyla. So Miloš left and we turned on the Voice of America and it said that Wojtyla was elected Pope. So we ran out the door and we ran to get Miloš, we caught him on Revoluční street, and we said, 'Miloš, Wojtyla is elected!' So we came back and we celebrated, so it was such a beautiful moment."

  • "She was kind of strange. For example, there was this thing where she said that whoever had the nicest handwriting notebook, it would be sent to a competition. And then she asked the class who had one B or two Bs in their notebook — the kids raised their hands — and I looked through mine and I had straight A’s, not a single bad grade. So I raised my hand, a bit timidly, and said, ‘Miss, I don’t have any B’s.’ She got really upset, started flipping through my notebook, and then said, ‘Well, we’re writing the last page now, so make it good.’ And the last letter was ‘F’, and I worked really hard on it, wrote the most beautiful ‘F’. Then she handed the notebooks back — and all the ‘F’s in mine were crossed out in red, like they were wrong, and underneath was some awful grade. And she said to me, ‘See? Your notebook can’t go to the exhibition now.’ And I thought, well, maybe it can’t. So I put it in my bag, because we were supposed to take the notebooks home to get signed. But she came over to me and said, ‘Give me that notebook — you're not taking it home to be signed!’”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Praha 2

    (audio)
    duration: 01:16:59
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
  • 2

    Praha, 31.10.2024

    (audio)
    duration: 01:59:42
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
  • 3

    Praha, 29.01.2025

    (audio)
    duration: 02:20:10
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

To put your children at risk, or to stand up for the truth

Lydia Šilarová in Krkonoše, 1972
Lydia Šilarová in Krkonoše, 1972
photo: Archive of the witness

Lýdie Šilarová was born on September 27, 1953 in Pardubice to parents Květa, née Stolařová, and Josef Smolík. Her father was a parish priest and also taught at the Comenius Evangelical Divinity School. In the second grade, she moved with her family to Prague, where her father was the pastor of the U Salvátora church for two years. Later, he devoted himself only to serving on the faculty, becoming dean five times. She had three more sisters, Noemi, Eva and Marta, and in Pardubice she experienced bullying from her teacher and classmates because of her faith. In Prague she witnessed the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. After finishing primary school, she entered the Academic Gymnasium in Štěpánská street, where more relaxed conditions prevailed for a short time in 1969. After graduating in 1973, she became a student at the Comenius Evangelical Divinity School. At that time she met her first husband František Šilar, an older classmate from the faculty, and between 1974 and 1977 they had three children, František, Filip, Noemi, and later a fourth, Marie. Due to the care of the children and the household, she spread her studies over seven years, but in the end did not pass the state exams. During her last year of college, her husband was one of the initiators of a protest letter in support of the parish priests without state approval, and he finished school with only good luck. However, he too did not receive state approval and never became a pastor. He worked in several boiler rooms in Prague, along with other clergymen and philosophers inconvenient to the regime. The family was in contact with members of the dissent, because František Šilar had signed Charter 77 and its representatives met at their home. Lydia Šilar also had financial worries about how to provide for her large family. When her children started school, she began working as a social worker at the primary school in Legerova street. She completed her pedagogical education and studied puppetry and acting at the DAMU. She did not take part in the demonstrations before November 1989, nor did she get too involved in her husband’s activities; her priority was the safety of their children. She welcomed November 1989 with enthusiasm, was able to further her education and from 1996 until her retirement worked as a first grade teacher at the primary school in Vratislavova street. She and her husband divorced the same year, but in 2002 she married her second husband, Eduard Brynda, RNDr. She taught religion at the U Salvátora Church and was also involved with children in extracurricular activities. In 2025, Lýdie Šilarová lived in Prague.