The communist regime made hog tenders out of Barons Schebek, but did not make them bitter
Stáhnout obrázek
Taťána Blažková, née Wiesnerová, was born in Kutná Hora on 16 July 1947. She grew up on a farm in Chotěměřice near Zbraslavice that her mother Tatiana Wiesnerová, née Schebková, received as dowry; she came from the popular and wealthy Schebek noble family that owned several chateaus in Bohemia. Baron Alfred Schebek, the witness’s grandfather, owned the chateau in Hodkov where pre-WWII celebrities such as Jan Masaryk, Václav Havel’s parents, Rudolf Firkušný, and Rafael Kubalík would come for visits. After the war, the chateau was put under national administration and Alfred and his family were expelled. They moved to Prague and lived with their friends in a small apartment at Na baště Sv. Tomáše. Adolf Schebek, the witness’s uncle, was expelled from the Ministry of the Interior after February 1948 and made his living in Hodkov as hog tender. The StB followed him and later won him over as a secret collaborator (“TS”). Grand uncle Jan Schebek faced a similar destiny; having been expelled from the chateau in Zruč nad Sázavou, he made his living in the KOVO-FINIŠ company where he was bullied due to his noble origins. He died soon after in 1952. The witness’s family was expelled from their Chotěměřice farm in 1950 and they lived at the state farm in Dražice near Mladá Boleslav for several years. Father Vladimír Wiesner worked as a livestock specialist in a neighbouring village. The StB arrested him there in July 1952 and later accused of sabotaging planned economy. He was held in detention in Pankrác and sentenced to two months of imprisonment in a show trial only in 1954. Witness’s brother Tomáš died in a grenade explosion in 1955. Father Vladimír left the family several years later. Taťána was not allowed to study at a high school because of her noble lineage. The farm was returned to the family in a restitution procedure after 1989. The witness lived in Chotěměřice near Zbraslavice at the time of recording (May 2021).
