Františka Vlčková

* 1934

  • “It was a bit complicated for me. A man lived with my mom who more or less forced us to move to the borderlands, which was common after the war. But Mom was reasonable and within a half year we had already returned, even if that man stayed behind. So I had a sort of half-year period, the summer holidays, the beginning of the them, till Christmas and then I came back because of the end of first school semester and I had the whole year report card from the Ruzyně school.”

  • “When those huge demonstrations were going on at Letná, I didn’t understand them. I just couldn’t somehow, somehow I could just not take it in, couldn’t feel it. The neighbors’ kids came to me, kids who had been coming to me since they were small, saying: ‘Franny, but you never said a word about it! How could you...? You were in the party, you must have known!’ And I responded: ‘And what was I supposed to know, for Christ’s sake? We’re ordinary people, I see it exactly the same way you do.’ So, again, we managed, we got through it, and it’s possible that I didn’t even argue with anyone about it, and we never hurt anybody.”

  • “I wanted so badly to be a teacher, really so badly. I kept thinking that it would work out, alas all of my sisters got married, Mom didn’t have much money, and there wasn’t anyone to help me with school, or to support me. So that’s how my teacher dream faded out. So, seeing that I had always been good with my hands, I really wanted to be a seamstress, only that a friend got it instead of me and the next year in the republic there was a measure that income would be regulated, hairdressers closed shop, private seamstresses were forbidden, there wasn’t anywhere for us to train anymore. At the end of the summer holiday I received a paper that I was to start work at ČKD Kolbenka Praha-Vysočany, which was terribly far away, and that I was to train as an electrical mechanic.”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Praha, 06.11.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 47:40
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

Ordinary people have to help each other

Františka Vlčková in her youth
Františka Vlčková in her youth
photo: archiv pamětnice

Františka Vlčková, née Chalupná, was born on 2 January 1934 in Prague. She grew up with her mother and three sisters. In 1938 her and her family moved to Zličín, from where Františka traveled to school in Ruzyně during the war. After the war, along with her mother and her mother’s partner, she moved to the borderlands. Upon her return, Františka continued to go to school in Ruzyně and afterwards began to work at ČKD Vysočany, where she was trained as an electrical mechanic. She worked in the workshop for some time before attaining a position in the office. After the birth of her child, she began working for the National Committee in Zličín. She was a member of the communist party.