A great disaster struck our family in 1952
Helena Grégrová was born on 31 March 1940 into the family of Jakub Husník, the inventor of the heliotype, and Duras, a prominent Prague lawyer and the owner of several houses and a large estate in Tetín. Father, JUDr. Jaroslav Husník, was an attorney at law, a vice-president of the Society of Friends of the USA and a legal representative of the St. Ursula Order. In 1952, the Husníks‘ apartment was confiscated and they were evicted from Prague, and the family farm in Tetín was nationalized. Helena graduated from high school in Školská Street in 1957. Because of her father‘s „political scar“ and her bourgeois background, she was not allowed to study in university. Throughout her life she worked as a clerk, first at the Institute of Health Education and Awareness (1958-1962), then at the Pharmacological Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. In 1962 she married Eduard Grégr Jr., the son of the owner of the Dr. Eduard Grégr Printing House, nationalised after 1948. Together with the Grégrs, they lived in a small apartment in Krocínova Street from 1965 on. In the 1970s, the Grégrs were harassed by the StB because of their contacts - they kept in touch with the family of Milan Schulz, an editor of Radio Free Europe in Munich and friend of Pavel Tigrid. In 1999, the house in Hálkova Street - the building of the former printing house - was returned to the Grégr family. Helena Grégrová was living in Prague in 2023.