Brigita Hertlová

* 1938

  • “Grandma took me and sister to the cemetery to Grandpa’s grave, I remember the spot exactly, where we ran into an angry man who knew Grandma, who called out to her, saying: “And you don’t know? Karlák (Charles’ Square) is in flames!’ Grandma screamed, I can still hear her, I have chills thinking about it: ‘Jesus Christ, my son’s there!’ She grabbed us up and in a full gallop we made our way back and Grandma was praying with rosary in hand. I sat down on the windowsill in a low glasshouse and I looked down below. After a while I suddenly saw my dad practically sliding along the wall and looking up with a very odd expression on his face, which was black, smudged. At that time my father was the director of Vyšehrad and he was having an editor’s meeting above in the Caritas Palace. There they had a glass roof. Suddenly a stone hand with extended finger smashed through the ceiling right into all of their papers that they had on the table below. They wasted no time getting to the shelter to hide. On Palacký Bridge then there were Myselbek’s statues, and that was Libuše’s hand, when she foretells the future glory of Prague. Today you can find it at Vyšehrad.”

  • “Just before in July (1968), we went to see Mom, who was at the spa in Trenčianske Teplice, and she told us: ‘Sorry, what? We’re being surrounded.’ And I told her: ‘Mom, don’t worry about it, it’s not fifty-six anymore. They wouldn’t let something like that happen again.’ Well, yeah... They did. And I was looking forward that Wednesday (21 August) because we were supposed to collect our pay and then suddenly there was someone banging... we still had old windows. A weeping Kačka was pounding on the windows, crying and screaming: ‘Get up, get up, we’re being occupied by the Russians.’ We bolted out of bed and heard the rumbling. Tanks were coming from Blatnice and we could hear how they rumbled. František left to the theater alone and I took the kids’ money, their change, to buy some coffee. Because we didn’t have anything then. I told myself that there was no way I could be here with the Russians and no coffee! So I gathered their money and pocketed it. I had a sort of denim dress on. So when I was running around with the all that money, I suddenly realized I had a full handful of dust. When the Russians were driving over and crushing the pavement, there was dust in the air. I walked the kids to pre-school. Sitting on the tanks were these totally livid young boys. My son was five years old then, and I said to myself: ‘They’re the victims, the poor devils. What about in ten years, fifteen?’”

  • “I perceived the war as a dire threat, and everyday moments stuck in my memory as an expression of war. In Vojkovice where we lived, we had huge windows spanning the entire room. It must have been about four meters of window. It was a modern functionalist villa... I loved it. Grandpa Hertl had built it. So, when there were the strict measures in place, watchmen arrived telling us that our lights had to be off, so they didn’t bring any air raids to the city. So there were these big fat black rugs on rings, and they had to be hung up every night before turning on the lights... And the way my mom balanced herself on the stool... I was so afraid she’d fall because of the way her calves were strained and how hard she tried to hang that heavy material on the hooks... I perceived this as war. That it was dangerous.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Veselí nad Moravou, 07.11.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 01:59:41
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - JMK REG ED
  • 2

    Veselí nad Moravou, 20.12.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 46:54
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - JMK REG ED
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I got more good than bad, and I am trying to forget the bad

Brigita Hertlová – period photograph
Brigita Hertlová – period photograph
zdroj: archiv pamětnice

Brigita Hertlová was born on 23 December 1938 in Prague to the family of the notable historian Jan Hertl. The family experienced the Second World War partially in Prague, but also in the vicinity of Roudnice nad Labem. In February 1945 they witnessed the bombing of Prague. Following the war, Brigita started school, after graduating in 1957 she was accepted into DAMU (the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague) to study directing. There she met her husband, František Čech, who she married in 1960. Together they left to Veselí nad Moravou and began working at the Theater of Moravian Slovakia (Slovácké divadlo) in Uherské Hradiště. After the Soviet occupation in August 1968, she refused to sign a statement of agreement with the invasion and was forced to leave the theater. She worked in a kitchen and an assembly line as well. From 1979 she had the possibility to work as an archivist in a theater in Olomouc. The Velvet Revolution reached her there, too. She and her husband raised three children together.