Comrade headmistress said I could train to be a miner, that I had the physique for it
Květa Hamplová was born on 20 May 1937 in Hradec Králové. Her father Jaroslav Vokřál ran a tinsmith workshop. Mum Božena trained as a seamstress. Both parents were active in the Sokol movement. During the Nazi occupation they were involved in the activities of the resistance group Jitřenka. Father was arrested by the Gestapo in March 1940. Mother was left alone with her young daughter. At the time she was pregnant and in charge of the whole business. Father was kept in Pankrác prison by the Nazis for a year and a half. Then he spent another six months in forced labour in Germany. In May 1940, witness´s mum gave birth to twins. After the war, her father‘s business was thriving, but after 1948 it was confiscated by the communist regime. It was taken over by the Municipal Construction Company in Hradec Králové and father continued to work there as a worker only. After finishing primary school in 1952, Květa had difficulties to get a job as a daughter of a small business owner. It was only through the intercession of her uncle that she was hired in the Pramen shop in Hradec Králové. She trained as a shop assistant and graduated from the school of economics. Then she worked as an accountant and later as a supply clerk at Technomat. After 1968 she was dismissed from her job. Eventually, she found employment at the East Bohemian Waterworks and Sewerage Company, where she also experienced the events of November 1989. Today Květa Hamplová lives in Hradec Králové - Svinary. She has a son and a daughter.