Věra Uhrovičová

* 1922

  • “My parents were irreligious. When Dad returned from the war, he joined the church. Back then there was this trend of people being against the Roman Church. That’s also why the Czechoslovak Church was established, and the idea was that we’re taking our own path, away from Rome. The church was active right here in Hodonín, they had a church there as well, and the parson would come here.”

  • “We were there for a year, and then the thirty-eight came and we had to... Dad was on the borders and Mum didn’t know what to do. All the finance blokes made sure to move out of Břeclav because it was dangerous. So she then set off here to Mikulčice. Well, and she looked to hire a carter to get us here because she didn’t know where to move to. Then she found a flat here, so we stayed. [Q: So you were among those who fled Břeclav to escape the Germans...] Yes, I remember that all right.”

  • “I was expecting at the time. The director came along and said: ‘Do your business in the morning, we don’t know what’ll happen, they might come back [the soldiers], so you might have to be closed away.’ So we went there, but I could feel I was surely going into labour. Back then we didn’t go to the maternity ward, we had one old granny here, so we called for her and she said: ‘Oh, that’s not quite coming yet,’ so I went down into the cellar to sleep. But then it was four in the morning and I felt it was probably coming. So we went back up into the house, and the granny, the midwife, said: ‘If you need me, I’ll be so and so...’ She had one other pregnant mum here, ‘so I’ll be with her.’ So my husband set off there, but she wasn’t to be found. So he ran all over the village looking for her, and then she... she had simply gone to hide in a cellar somewhere as well, so we didn’t know about her. And it was my time; we had one aunt here who also helped with the births, and she kind of knew about it, so she came by. I had a medical book ready, and I advised them what they should do. Well, and when the granny came along, the baby was already born.”

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    Mikulčice, 14.09.2018

    (audio)
    duration: 01:32:27
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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We took it pretty calmly

1944 - Vera profile photo
1944 - Vera profile photo
photo: archiv pamětnice

Věra Uhrovičová was born on 9 October 1922 in Lanžhot into the family of Jaroslav Kotásek, who served at the borders with the Financial Guard. After completing primary school (both elementary and town school), she enrolled at a family school. In 1937 her father was employed with the Border Guard, and the family moved to Břeclav. From there the family fled to Mikulčice as soon as the mobilisation was declared. In 1941 the witness moved to Prague, where she looked after two small boys in one family, thus avoiding forced labour in Germany. In 1944 she married Matouš Uhrovič and joined the Czechoslovak Hussite Church. In April 1945 she gave birth to her first son as the battlefront was passing by. She raised four children and worked as a plant cultivator at the agricultural cooperative in Mikulčice. In 1969 one of her sons fled the country and emigrated to the United States of America, where he lives to this day.