I‘ve always been terrified of air raids.
Stáhnout obrázek
Helena Pešková, maiden name Rolencová, was born on 11 July 1934 in Pilsen to Anna Rolencová, née Fritsch, and Alois Rolenc. Her father worked in a hardware store, her mother took care of the household. Both were active in the Catholic sports organization Orel. Helena Pešková experienced air raids by Allied planes during the war. She always ran for cover with her mother and two sisters, fearing for the life of her father, who at that time worked in the Macho and Turek hardware store. It was with great joy that the American soldiers of the 16th Armored Division were welcomed in Pilsen on May 6, 1945. Helena‘s grandfather Václav Fritsch, who was German by birth, was not deported after the war because of his popularity among the locals. The florist shop where she wanted to work was taken away from her uncle by the communists, so in 1949 she went to work as an electromechanic at the Škoda factory, and after her apprenticeship she worked there. On 1 June 1953, she and others went on strike at the factory in Plzeň-Doudlevce against the currency reform. On 2 August 1961, she married Václav Pesek, who had previously joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia out of his youthful ideals and remained in it for purely practical reasons after the August 1968 occupation. In 1962, Helena Pešková went to India with her six-month-old daughter Helena to join her husband, who was managing the construction of a metallurgical plant there. She spent two and a half years there. She was unable to find work in Czechoslovakia, so she stayed at home with her daughter for ten years. She then worked again at Skoda until her retirement. She and her husband, who joined the rolling mill department, often went on trips from Skoda to the Soviet Union. At the time of filming (2023) she lived in Pilsen.
