Helmut Ulowetz

* 1942

  • "How do you remember 1968?" "It was really cruel. We had just got tickets for the revolving auditorium, we arrived in Krumlov at the bus station, and we found out that the Russian tanks had arrived, and that everything was being cancelled. Nobody knew what was going to happen. So we went back. In the morning at five o'clock there was a group of men in front of the house in Větřní, men who hadn't gone to work, discussing what they had heard. Then we saw the tanks in Větřní, they were driving through. They built a campsite in the direction from Větřní to Kájov, they stayed in the woods and in the meadow. It was a strange feeling. We believed that the regime was finally loosening up. And suddenly, everything was upside down."

  • "So your family stayed in Czechoslovakia after the war?" "After the war my father went to work in the paper mills in Loučovice, and when the deportation took place, my mother was to be deported with us children. We were two children, my sister and I. But my father didn't get permission to leave. And because my mother wouldn't leave without him, we stayed too. We lived in my grandmother's house." "And the other relatives? Grandmother, mother's siblings, they all left?" "They were all deported. My grandmother and grandfather and the two boys, the youngest and the second youngest. And the other two were already in Austria for work and in Germany. So the grandmother and grandfather and the two boys moved to Germany."

  • "Monks were still living in the monastery at that time. Do you remember them?" "I remember a little, though not much. Because my mother went to church, I was an altar boy from the age of seven. One evening there was a mass in the church. It was already dark. Cars came and started taking all these monks away. So we had to leave the church through another door. I remember there was some movement, whether it was soldiers or someone else. We saw that. Then when it was all gone, we went with the parish priest into a big hall with books to rearrange things and clean up a little bit. We were altar boys so we had to help the parish priest. After some time it was sealed up, it was closed. There was a corridor behind the vestry and a garden in the middle. There were doors, both to the right and to the left. And they were shut. Then the foot soldiers took over the place."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Horní Planá, 23.06.2021

    (audio)
    duration: 02:16:27
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

My father was trying for 20 years to emigrate

Helmut Ulowetz with his mother Hedvika (ca. 1958)
Helmut Ulowetz with his mother Hedvika (ca. 1958)
photo: Archiv pamětníka

Helmut Ulowetz was born on 8th August 1942 in Přední Loučovice in Šumava. His mother Hedvika, née Preyerová, came from a German family. His father Josef, originally Czech, took German nationality in 1941. After World War II, his mother’s relatives were deported to Germany. The Ulowetz family also wanted to leave, but his father Josef was considered an indispensable employee in the paper mills and was not allowed to leave. The family remained in Czechoslovakia. Helmut trained as a carpenter in České Budějovice. In 1962-1964 he completed his compulsory military service with the military engineering in Pardubice. In 1966, after several rejected applications, the authorities allowed the Ulowetz family to emigrate. At that time Helmut was already married, had two daughters and stayed with his family in Czechoslovakia. He worked all his life on construction sites, first as a team leader, later working in occupational safety. In 2021, Helmut Ulowetz lived in Větřní.