"For example, in the mill in Trnovany a whole group of former comrades-in-arms from Volhynia used to gather to play cards with my dad and brother. It looks funny, but one day they were playing cards like that, because they always played on Saturdays until late at night, and I had a crib under the window, I was about two years old, two and a half. And they were playing and drinking and singing songs and the women were sitting there telling hopeful stories and reminiscing, and all of a sudden somebody kicked in the window, and when you asked me about the memory, I remember the leather shoe in the crib. When they came to arrest all the twelve guys who were playing cards there, they broke the window, and this comrade, or whatever it was, got into my crib and yelled, you're under arrest. All twelve guys were taken to Most to prison. That's my first memory, when I was a baby, and still to this day, when I see a big black leather boot, I get goose bumps or very unpleasant feelings."
"Things got a little loose and August 21 came and I was the director of the kindergarten and I was supposed to go to work and my dad wouldn't let me go because he was watching the sun rise, a new day was dawning, and there were bugs on the horizon in Žatec. And he says, it's the Russians. And I said, I have to go to kindergarten. I have to evacuate. Because we had a so-called evacuation plan, when a foreign army invaded the republic, we teachers had to secure the school and the documents. So, I got on my Pionýr JAWA 21 and went to Holedeč to secure the school. Dad yelled that I shouldn't go anywhere because it was towards the tanks. I got to Holedeč, it was still fine, they were sleeping in those...there was no roadblock. So, I drove over that hill and secured the school by packing some nonsense lists of children and how many pears we had in the canteen and so on, and waiting to see what would happen. And I was coming back on this Pionýr and they took it away from me. So, I got home and... Yeah, he said 'davaj' [give it to me – trans.], so I gave him the Pionýr and then dad said, let's go get it. The first and last time I saw him, he said he'd better shoot me. And we went to the national committee to tell a comrade there that the Russian army had stolen my Pionýr. But they said it was booty, because it was such a week that we were still going to defend ourselves and that therefore we... well, we finished fighting back and after Sunday the battle was over. I never saw the Pionýr in my life after that."
"We used to go every day. I taught at a primary art school, so I went straight from the school from Libeň to Wenceslas Square for instance. Because I knew... because at the end there they always shouted: "And here again tomorrow!" Those who wanted to, came again. The worst was Thursday, which was horrible, they tried to disperse it into the streets, it was terrible, and I know that we hid in Blaník, in the cinema. Now I don't know exactly what day it was, I don't know exactly... maybe Zdenda would know. We would always meet there, he would come from work or home and I would come from the school and we would be there for a while, then we would go home and count the children and tell the grandmother, who was watching them, about it."
Darina Martinovská was born on 1 October 1947 in Teplice. Her ancestors moved to Ukrainian Volhynia at the end of the 19th century. Her father and half-brother were among the few survivors of the burning of Český Malín on 13 July 1943. Her father returned to Czechoslovakia with other surviving relatives. There he was convicted in 1949 for allegedly subverting the republic. The witness graduated from the Faculty of Education at Charles University and the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, taught at various levels of schools, and worked as a principal in a kindergarten. She was also active as a theatre director, designer, puppeteer, author of scripts, didactic aids and books for children. In 1990-1998 she was a representative of the Prague City Council and Deputy Mayor of Prague.
In 2022 Darina Martinovská lived in Hodkovice nad Mohelkou.
Meeting of the family in Žatec. From left Alois Martinovský Jr., Alois Martinovský Sr., Josef Martinovský, his daughter-in-law Marie, Věra Beštová, Božena Martinovská, below Darina Martinovská and Larisa, 1952
Meeting of the family in Žatec. From left Alois Martinovský Jr., Alois Martinovský Sr., Josef Martinovský, his daughter-in-law Marie, Věra Beštová, Božena Martinovská, below Darina Martinovská and Larisa, 1952
