Jarmila Kostecká

* 1933

  • "So, they didn't do any searches in our house, only my mother cleverly set up such a trick in the library that Géza Včelička was put there - it was a paperback book V zemích hákového kříže [In the Lands of the Swastika – trans.], and on the cover there was a collage with Hitler, the hakenkreuz, that is Swastika. But the content was downright anti-militarist and anti-German. But the cover was. And then there was a German textbook Mein liebstes Buch, My Dearest Book, in German. And my mother had arranged it on the shelf at eye level, which would sort of catch the eye, and she was right. Because then at the end of 1941, she was locked up too. My mother because she was in Sokol, and they came for her at three o'clock at night, so I was standing in the crib watching what is going on, and then when they reached for the two books, they commented on it, saying it is right, that there's something like that."

  • "Suddenly the Germans came out against us on motorbikes, on cars, and we, I remember how our parents froze. It was rolling against us, the flow. We came home and I didn't understand it at first, the burning of documents started. So, my parents immediately burned documents, they obviously knew what was coming up, so it was kind of a preparation for the end, and unfortunately my father was arrested right away. I think maybe in January 1940."

  • "I will never forget that when the mobilisation was called, he of course immediately enlisted in Hranice. My mother and I went there right away and there was a ceremonial parade through the town of Hranice and my father was riding his horse in front of his battery and when he saw us standing on the side he saluted and the whole regiment behind him did a right face. Jesus, how I felt about him... I respected him for being my father and so beautifully... Of course, one didn't know what was going to happen next."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, 04.03.2022

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    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

There has always been hope that it will change

Jarmila Kostecká, 1951
Jarmila Kostecká, 1951
zdroj: archiv pamětnice

Jarmila Kostecká (née Pechalová) was born on 29 November 1933 in Hrušov. Her parents, Amálie and Josef Pechal, were active members of Sokol during the First Czechoslovak Republic. Moreover, Josef Pechal was an officer in the Czechoslovak army. Already at the beginning of the war he was arrested by the Gestapo for resistance activities and died in Mauthausen in October 1941. In the same year, Jarmila‘s mother was arrested, but the Nazis released her after two months of imprisonment and interrogation. Following the example of her parents, Jarmila herself grew up in a Sokol and patriotic environment. As a junior in 1948, she took part in the XIth All-Sokol Slet, which was also a demonstration of trainees against the incoming communist regime. After graduating from the grammar school in Ostrava (Matiční české realné gmnázium), she studied at the Faculty of Science of Comenius University in Bratislava, from which she graduated as a teacher in 1955. Two years later she married ing. arch. Zdeněk Kostecký, with whom she raised two children - Martin and Zdeňka. Throughout the communist regime, the Kostecký family kept a clean slate and did not join the party. Besides her family, singing was also one of Jarmila‘s beloved hobbies. As a member of the Lúčnice ensemble, she visited Moscow during the 1950s. After her husband‘s death in 1986, following her mother‘s example, she never married again. In the 1990s, when the Sokol organization was revived, she continued her earlier activities and participated in the education of her successors. In 2022 Jarmila Kostecká lived in Tichá in Valašsko with her daughter Zdeňka.