„They told me (the graduation commission, editor´s note) after graduation… and I was an excellent student. At the time I knew… the basics of six languages. And I wished to study them further. And they told me after graduation, that I need to get closer to the working class and won´t be allowed to any high school at all. So they simply didn’t let me. I has a nervous breakdown and was out for half a year. I was playing in a sand pit with neighbours’ kids. I didn’t understand it but thought I could not have been a one-off decision of the commission. When I recall the situation today, it was all setting up at the school grounds some time before exams. For example my worst grade in Czech language ever was B, always just the best scores. It was my talent, I´ve never had any trouble learning languages, it came naturally to me. And they gave me the worst score, let me fail as it was apparently poorly oriented. They didn’t beat around the bush…. And probably could not find any mistakes of course. There were no grammatical mistakes. As they commented on the result: ,It was badly oriented, you failed the writing test.‘ Then came an oral exam and I drew the topic of ‚journalists‘. And as I loved Čapek, I named a few others and chose to speak about him. Yet they strictly stopped me as they preferred me not to talk just about him…“
„Yet in 1945, as soon as possible, I re-joined Sokol again. Of course here in Jablonec. There was a very good mainly junior Sokol. A very good one with many members. I remember us going to the meeting in 1948, I was actually not old enough to belong amongst juniors. But we were picked by the leader, Boženka Měšťánková. She selected a few able girls from the school kids and took us along to the meeting. So there I was exercising along with them. It would still make me cry today, remembering how we marched together though the gate… oh well. In youth the perception is much more sensitive than in adult age. There were thousands, maybe tens of thousands of girls; the whole Strahov stadium. Juniors were exercising with white rings wearing metal blue training dresses. And it was very girly and so touching, just a flooding… oh well. We marched through Prague calling out: ,Long live the one we like!‘ But at the time Gottwald was already a president, but we didn’t want to cry at Beneš. We were ordered to cry out: ,Long live the one we like!‘“
„I probably… if that´s enough, I understand just one thing. And I am crying again. I was really very ill at that time so I could not go to Prague, when my son asked me to. I just could not move at all. And I know I said then: ,Czech president at the Czech castle.‘ So if that´s enough for you. … let me wipe my tears.“
Milena Janouchová, née Jezberová, was born on 15 September, 1934 in Prague. She lived in Letná throughout the whole war. Several times she was hiding from allies‘ air-raid to Prague. Almost a year at the end of war she spent with her mother and a brother in Vysoké nad Jizerou. Here she began to meet the members of Hitlerjugend and experienced the liberation by the Soviet troops. After war she moved with her family to Jablonec nad Nisou. There she joined Ymka, scouts and Sokol repeatedly. In June 1948 she participated in overall Sokol reunion. Her father opened a car driving school in Jablonec nad Nisou. The communists nationalised it and in 1960 they imprisoned him for a year in Leopold. After graduating at the gymnasium Milena wished to study languages at the high school. In 1952 the graduation commission banned her ambition. She suffered a nervous breakdown. A year later her uncle helped her apply at the new High school of Russian language and literature in Prague. She was only allowed to study distantly. She began teaching at the secondary engineering school. Since 1957 she worked in a company Autobrzdy Jablonec nad Nisou for twelve years. She has two children and is an active member of old scouting club. She elaborated a chronicle of scouting in the Jablonec region. Since the end of war she´s been living in Jablonec nad Nisou permanently.
Sokol Jablonec n/N´s junior women (participants of Sokol festival in 1948, Milena Janouchová bottom row, first on the left; team´s coach Božena Měšťáčková in the middle wearing white blouse)
Sokol Jablonec n/N´s junior women (participants of Sokol festival in 1948, Milena Janouchová bottom row, first on the left; team´s coach Božena Měšťáčková in the middle wearing white blouse)
