"I'm obviously one of the vaccine supporters, because I've always been a fan of the vaccine supporters, because I know that every one of them sucked it up in the beginning, they got slapped around, including the great Edward Jenner, who was the first vaccine supporter. Vacca means cow in Latin. He took black cowpox and he used to smear it on people. At first people were stupid, they slapped him, beat him up, threw rotten tomatoes at him, stinking eggs at him - that's how Edward Jenner, who invented vaccination, started. Today it's called vaccination, although it's not about the cow anymore, but it's a process of giving either a reduced toxin so that it still has antigenic properties, or directly the microbes, depending on what you vaccinate and what you vaccinate with."
"They had such strange questions about me being so social, if I would like some wine. I said, 'I don't drink wine, I'm an old Pilsner, and we call wine a sour beer, and the most you can put in it is cucumbers. What's the point?' - 'Well, you could...' Well they were pulling [from me] if I could inform them. - 'You're so sociable.' And I said, 'I've got enough friends and I'm not really a drinker, I like smoking, coffee, and if I have beer, it's as a social drink. - 'Well, would you like to go for a beer sometime?' I say I do, when I feel like it. - 'What's your point?' They undoubtedly wanted cooperation because they understood that I wasn't a pure chartist, but that I was a good draw to get them into the party. And I was looking out for myself! In the evening I went to Zdeněk Neubauer's apartment, and he was giggling like an asshole at the door, and he didn't burst. - 'So, my dear, did the whores pull you out too?' - 'Of course the whores pulled me out, they wanted to know who you were seeing.'
"We walked around Karlák, then went down where there was a bridge, and there were tanks with their barrels pointing out—we would sometimes climb onto them. But the worst was when we were strolling through the park at Karlovo náměstí with some young soldier who had no military decorations. And then, from around the corner, a Russian appeared and shot him—because he had become unreliable. He had talked to us, learned the truth, that there was no counterrevolution here. Many like him were buried in Stromovka, which became a mass grave for those poor Russian boys who had no idea where they were and were simply following orders from the Soviet Army."
"He allegedly worked as a prosector in Terezín and hid living people under piles of corpses before the transports to the east. And this is what I wanted to get into the Memory of the Nation, because I never read about it anywhere. If there are sources about it somewhere, because I know this from the Jews who knew him - because I knew several Jewish friends who survived - they all said this. So it was relata refero—I’m just passing on what I heard." – "And he never spoke about it himself?"
– "He never talked about his activities during the war."
She was born on July 4, 1933 in Pilsen into the educated family of JUDr. Rudolf and RNDr. Emma Černá. From the age of two, she lived with her parents and older sister Emma in Kladno, where her father worked as a financial director at the Prague Iron and Steel Company. After the war, the family moved from Kladno to Prague 7, where she continued her studies at the grammar school. After graduation, she had to work a part-time job in the coal mines before she could be admitted to study microbiology at the Faculty of Science of Charles University. Before graduation, she started working as a laboratory technician in the pathology department of Motol Hospital, where she studied medical microbiology under the guidance of the experienced and respected MUDr. Max Rauchenberg, who worked as a pathologist in the Terezín ghetto during the war. In 1963, she joined the Department of Microbiology and Genetics at the Faculty of Science of Charles University as a teaching assistant. After the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968, she resigned from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and could only teach practical classes. Together with biologist and philosopher Zdeněk Neubauer, she devoted herself to research on bacterial colonies. Because of her contacts with dissent, she was followed by State Security for several years in the 1980s. She actively participated in the Velvet Revolution and in 1990, together with Zdeněk Neubauer, she was behind the re-establishment of the Department of Philosophy and Natural Sciences at the Faculty of Science of Charles University. After her retirement she taught languages privately. As a single mother she raised one daughter and two sons. She died on 21 June 2023.
The witness (second from right on skis) with her husband Josef Koutecký, who is holding Emma's son David, her sister Emma (right), her eldest son Pavel and her cousin Jana (right)
The witness (second from right on skis) with her husband Josef Koutecký, who is holding Emma's son David, her sister Emma (right), her eldest son Pavel and her cousin Jana (right)
Eva Koutecká in Israel, which she visited after the Velvet Revolution with Zdeněk Neubauer and Alena Linhartová (then Toulcová). Her friends (often former students) had contributed to her trip to Israel, because they knew that she longed to visit Israel.
Eva Koutecká in Israel, which she visited after the Velvet Revolution with Zdeněk Neubauer and Alena Linhartová (then Toulcová). Her friends (often former students) had contributed to her trip to Israel, because they knew that she longed to visit Israel.
