Věra Burešová

* 1928

  • "Then we learned that they found weapons in the next barracks, where the Srdíčko nightclub was located. And there were one hundred and twenty people in the shelter. The Germans said that if no one signed up for them, then - I don't know if they threw it in a ventilation shaft or where, they simply found it there - so they shot the whole cover. There were one hundred and twenty people. So two people declared that they were their weapons. They took them to the backyard and shot them there. And one of those shot was the father of Jirka Bureš, whom I married. I didn't know that at the time ... "

  • "There was a French window all the way down, and behind it there was a space of about a meter so that there would be normal light so that it would not be completely drowned. And that's when the East Germans started coming to Prague. The hotel was full of them. I didn't know how they got there, but suddenly the hotel was full. The police started chasing them in various ways, and it happened to me once when I worked, suddenly there was this noise and bang as when someone jumps. And a young boy jumped up the street in front of the window and said, 'The cops are chasing me, don't be mad at me.' "-" Did he speak Czech or German? "-" He spoke Czech. I say, 'Well, you know what? Then come on. ' So I led him out through the personal entrance. I went upstairs to the front desk and wondered what was going on outside? Because there was nothing to be heard. So we saw crowds of people and cops outside them outside the hotel, because it was on the waterfront, so it was pretty lively there. "

  • "Suddenly we heard it roaring - planes were heard. And suddenly such a terrible blow. The window blind tilted inward, shattering the glass and the door. And we heard something banging over us. So Věrka and I stood by the pans and didn't move. And we just heard one floor fall after another. So we thought it was our building. Then it was quiet, we opened the door to the hallway, and there nothing could be seen. Plaster, everything was black. And people ran up the stairs because no one went to the shelter. All the people were running from top to bottom, so we saw that it was bad. "

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I experienced the bombing of Prague and the Prague Uprising

Věra Burešová, second half of the 1950s
Věra Burešová, second half of the 1950s
zdroj: archiv pamětnice

Věra Burešová, née Harudová, was born on June 24, 1928 in Kublov in the Beroun region. Hovewer she grew up with her parents in Prague‘s Michle, where her father ran the restaurant Sparta. Věra practiced in Sokol from an early age and later, during its ban under communism, she continued in TJ Meteor Kačerov and also took part in the Spartakiads. When she was not even seventeen years old, she experienced the bombing of Prague and also the Prague Uprising. During the war, she completed a two-year study at the Cecília Blochová Business School and, after the war, the hotel school in Mariánské Lázně. All her life she devoted herself to studying and improving her knowledge of the English language and worked in a number of Prague hotels. She ran an apprenticeship center at the Prague Hotel Palace and worked as a receptionist at the Budovatel Hotel. She remained active even in old age. In 2021 she lived in Prague in Vinohrady.