Svatava Němcová

* 1931

  • „We rejoiced over the oncoming tanks, waved, and suddenly a military ‘gazík’ (GAZ 69) stopped in front of us and about five soldiers jumped out of it: 'There's a window upstairs and we will live there.' So we had them here for two and a half months. I was fourteen and to top it all off I got mild typhus, so I know I was locked in a room and my mother was worried about me. There was one soldier who came to my mother's for lunch and a chat: 'Don't worry, Charajka,' he said, he was Mongolian, beautiful Anatol, this soldier, 'nothing will happen to you, I will protect it.' They were here until about mid-September. They destroyed what could be destroyed, and I won’t even mention the ruckus and terrible mess.“

  • „A part, or you could say a larger third [of the sentence my father spent] in Jáchymov, where we went on ten to fifteen-minute visits on Saturdays afternoon once every six months when my father had visits allowed. So he had to figure out whether it would be my mom and me, or my mom and brother, or my mom and [his] sister, just always two people. In Horní Slavkov they let us get on a bus, we got out in front of the prison and there was my father behind a barred window. Only our fingers could touch. ‘Just talk about family matters’;, he wasn't even allowed to ask about friends at all, the visit just lasted ten minutes."

  • „We were preparing for it [XI. All-Sokol Slet], we rehearsed in Milevsko. There were eighteen of us. The name of the song was 'Circles', and in order to not come unprepared, there were so-called 'fun Wednesdays'. Mr. Zeman, the school principal, examined us on history, Sokol songs, the Sokol's past and we did ideological exams. This was one cross-check, another was in the knowledge of Tábor County. Sister Morozová came to see how prepared we were, and then we went there for five days. I have the most beautiful memories of the parade when the Sokol slogans were proclaimed. Of course, when we were passing Gottwald, our heads turned elsewhere."

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Milevsko, 17.05.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 01:12:13
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A gift is to live without memory loss

Svatava Němcová, 1946
Svatava Němcová, 1946
zdroj: Witness' archive

Svatava Němcová was born on February 25, 1931 to Jindřich and Maria Čunát. She spent her whole life in Milevsko, from where she has many memories of the Second World War. She later married and raised two daughters there. Her great love was exercising at the Sokol club, a gymnastics society originating in Prague in 1862. As a teenager, she participated in the XI. All-Sokol Slet, then graduated from the Tyrš school for trainers in České Budějovice and eventually became chief. Exercising, along with faith and strong family relationships, helped her overcome difficult life periods. When her father was sentenced to 15 years in prison for high treason, she supported her family as a lathe operator. After giving birth to two daughters, she managed to get a job in an accounting firm. Although her father was rehabilitated in 1969, the family was accompanied by other restrictions at the time of normalization (the period following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia), for example regarding her daughters‘ study options. In 1980, the witness became seriously ill and could no longer return to work. She spent the next years of her life dedicated to her family and work at Sokol. She considers the time after the Velvet Revolution to be the most beautiful period of her life. She was still living in Milevsko at the time of filming.