"We came out of the shelter and a Russian soldier was riding a bicycle. But there were no tubular tyres. It was clanking! And we laughed and he didn't know what. He kept pedaling and it wouldn't go. We thought, "This must be the first time he's seen this. Then we found out that they really hadn't seen some things yet. My mother told me that in Vyškov, for example, they shot the alarm clock that rang and washed themselves in the toilet bowl. Maybe they were from the backwoods where they had nothing. I have nothing against them, but there are bad people and there are good people. But in Vyškov, where I lived, you weren't allowed to say 'Russian'. They raped women there. My sister was hidden in the covers."
"When the bombing was on Kotěrka [Kotěrova Street in Zlín], we had already experienced that up under the forest, when new shelters were made. There were three families there. I will never forget that. My little son was in a foot muf, and when it exploded I was standing over him and my husband was standing over me. Mrs. Svoboda, who was there with us, said, 'Guys, let's pray, it's the last hour.' The closed door was blown open by the pressure and the lights went out. In a moment a gentleman from the family, whom I didn't know, came out and said, 'Zlín is burning.' That's how I survived the bombing in a shelter.''
"There was a buffet where we had breakfast. We were given a cup of coffee or tea and a big slice of bread with butter. There was never a bun, always bread and butter and that coffee. We used to get up after five o'clock. The horn blew, and we had to jump out of bed, not lie down. We had to put the bed in order, fold and flatten the blanket like in the army. There were always two girls on duty all week, fixing what wasn't right. Then she'd come in and check and score how tidy it was. But the cleaners washed the floor, not us. And in five minutes to six we had to stand at the [shoe belt making] ring."
Drahomíra Stehlíková, her maiden name Kotulánová, was born on 12 February 1922 in Juliánov (now part of Brno). Immediately after her birth, she moved with her parents to Vyškov to the house of her grandmother, who after the death of her husband remained alone in the house burdened with debt. In Vyškov, she attended both a municipal and a burgher school. She then entered the Bata School of Labour in Zlín, focusing on family education, which included work in the factory. She lived at the local boarding school. In 1943 she married Oldřich Stehlík and together they moved into the Bata house, which was allocated to them after an appeal to the minister and mayor of Zlín, Dominik Čipera. At the end of the Second World War she experienced the bombing of Zlín and its liberation. She worked at the Bata company and later at Stavosvit, a former Bata construction company. The currency reform in 1953 deprived the Stehlik family of their life savings. Drahomíra Stehlíková never joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). Throughout her life, she has honoured Bata‘s legacy and his ideals, which include diligence, honesty and modesty. In 2023 she lived in Zlín.
Dad, mother and sister of the winess with "auntie" (right), who worked as a cook at the Vyškov castle, in the foreground the children of the witness's brother
Dad, mother and sister of the winess with "auntie" (right), who worked as a cook at the Vyškov castle, in the foreground the children of the witness's brother
On the left is the aunt of the witness Marie, who cooked at the Vyškov castle. In the middle, the sister of the witness next to the mother of the witness (right)
On the left is the aunt of the witness Marie, who cooked at the Vyškov castle. In the middle, the sister of the witness next to the mother of the witness (right)
Photo board of the T. Bata Public Business School from 1939, from which Oldřich Stehlík graduated. The husband of the witness could not be identified here
Photo board of the T. Bata Public Business School from 1939, from which Oldřich Stehlík graduated. The husband of the witness could not be identified here
