“In 1953 there was the first inauguration of four women in Poděbrady in the ECCB. We were inaugurated by Viktor Hájek and he used the text from Isaiah: “I send you to preach the Good News by a silent and grieved heart etc.” I remember that. My parents were there with me.”
“On that fifth of May I was listening to the radio transmission of the Prague broadcast. My father was at the town hall and I cried because I was afraid that they’d shoot them all. My mother told me not to cry. We felt that there was something terrible going on. Then we went out to the square where people had already gathered. A procession of people went to the schools and to the train station. People were walking like this around the city. By that time the German soldiers were still garrisoned at the Musil hotel. Then we came to the square and I remember that Mrs. Forejtová that now is in the KSČ and the Union of Freedom Fighters was there as well. She was a small child of the age of six by then and her father, who was the chief of the fire fighters, was shot in Theresienstadt on that day. I remember that my mother held her hand. We were all standing there and my father together with some other men walked out on the balcony and talked to the crowd. All of this happened in silence and calmness. When the people went home afterwards my father spoke on the Březnice broadcast and instructed the people to remain calm and to go to bed, that the situation is secure and that there will be no more shooting.”
“When I got married my life looked like this: Me and my husband had to take care of the choir on Saturdays and Sundays. He left on Sunday about 11 a.m. for his train because he served in Protivín or Vodňany as well. In the meantime I taught at the Sunday school after the sermons. Additionally, I had to learn to play the organ. We had to manage all of this on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday evening the youngsters came and we had to cook.”
“Once a man and a woman in leather jackets came to my sermon. I was speaking about a sermon written by my husband, a beautiful sermon about marriage. They were sitting there dumbfounded. I experienced a lot of different things. I knew that I was being wiretapped by the tenant living in the apartment above our praying room. When I had a hard session I determined not to tell it to my father. But it must have been intuition because as soon as I opened the door he looked at me and said: “So how was it?” By talking to me he relieved my stress and gave me his advice. He was a great support to me.”
“I wrote the message that my husband confirmed by his life and later by his death above the Lord’s table in the praying room in Příbram. It’s from John’s gospel: ““There’s no greater joy then to give your soul away for your friends.” Amen.”
Alena Šounová was born on August 15, 1928, in Račice nearby Roudnice nad Labem in the family of Joseph Štěrba and Růžena Štěrbová, born Arazimová. Her brother Vladimir was born two years later. The children were baptized in the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB). Her father was from Tochovice and worked as a specialist teacher in several places in Czechoslovakia (Košice, Roudnicko). In 1938 he returned to his native land and settled with his family in Březnice. Since her early childhood Alena was strongly influenced by her parents’ faith in good. They were also led to love music. Alena attended elementary school in Beřkovice and later she continued in Březnice. She accomplished her studies at a grammar school in Příbram. Here she witnessed the bitter story of the school’s headmaster Joseph Lukeš and the student of the sixth grade Antonín Stočes during the Heydrichiáda (a retaliation campaign against the Czech population after the assassination of Heydrich in 1942 - note by the translator). This story later served as the inspiration for a movie made by Jan Drda called “Vyšší princip” (The Higher Principle). Her father Joseph Štěrba participated in the resistance movement and was elected the president of the Revolutionary National Committee in Březnice in 1945. After her school-leaving exam in 1947 Alena decided to study Theology. At that time she was already engaged to the protestant parson Srnka whom she married at the end of her first year. In the beginning of the fifties, however, Srnka died at the age of 33 after a prolonged disease. Alena finished her studies in 1951. Her informal patron became her professor and the head of the faculty J. L. Hromádka, who helped her on numerous occasions in her life. He also reached her a helping hand in 1952, when she had difficulties finding a job in the ECCB that faced many restrictions and limitations by the end of the forties. Mr. Hromádka got Alena a job in the ECCB religious community in Příbram where she served as a parson till 1987. In this position she was very active and with the help of dean Hromádka she managed to establish ecumenical contacts with the abroad and was allowed to make trips abroad. Her lectures and preaching abroad ended, however, in the seventies and was substituted by close monitoring by the STB (the Czechoslovak secret state police - note by the translator). In 1973 she married Joseph Šouna, who had been a great support for her throughout her ministerial service. It was too late, however, to found a family. Alena continued her service to the church and to the religious community till her retirement in 1988. In 1989 her husband got seriously ill and she cared for him until his death in 2003. They lived together in a house for elderly and sick people in Příbram. Alena Šounová died on 10 March 2012.
