Jana Tenková

* 1948

  • "I saw terrible poverty there for the first time in my life. There were greenhouses in Sochi, but they were greenhouses from the First Republic, they were chopped up, smashed up, but it was warm by the sea, of course. But I never saw in my life what kind of flowers they grew in those holes. They grew potato plants, they were like that. I remember that one variety was called May Fire. Well, they were beautiful! They'd have to win first prize at a world's fair somewhere. But that was because of the climate. But I saw some really awful misery there. In the village where we went to see how the greenhouses were, no, not there, brrr!"

  • "And then can I tell you about my friend who's grandfather was a forester? He was a forester near Rokycany, and he went to the Russian headquarters to complain that the Russian boys were catching rabbits in their traps. They didn't have anything to eat, so they just wanted to get a little extra. So the commander said, "Do you recognize them? So he lined them up, the whole unit, and Grandpa pointed to six guys and he pulled out his gun and pic, pic, pic. Grandpa was traumatized for the rest of his life, he was even in a mental institution for a short stint of treatment because of fucking rabbits... Russians don't care if, as long as they believe what they're told. Which we see today, they do."

  • "During the war, my grandfather was in a special anti-fascist group, and I know that in the other group, there is a memorial headstone there at Nová Nová Hospoda, there was Mr Smolek and others, and they died in the concentration camp. My grandfather was not caught. But he was just convinced how good he was and this, before he knew what the Russians were. In '68, my grandfather was already retired, but he took a pub, the Sokolovna. And that's where they ran, of course - when the Russians occupied us, they were also at the airport, where else would they go. But they probably didn't have much food there. So they tried wherever they could, and they always secretly ran to the pub. Well, and the old communists to the young guys, they didn't know which one was beating, they didn't know why they were here and how, so they bought them beer. And one time - I used to help my grandfather always on Sundays, because that was a much bigger tip than I got at work, for Saturdays, for Sundays. So that's where they came. There were five of them, the Russian soldiers. And about half an hour later a plane came to them. Grandpa managed to let the four boys go and the fifth one, they caught him there and normally, all the old communists had their mouths shut because they beat him to death, blood, then they finished him off and I know they wrote home that he died there for saving the revolution."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Plzeň, 21.10.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:20:19
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - PLZ REG ED
  • 2

    Plzeň, 23.02.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 01:19:44
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - PLZ REG ED
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

Everybody told us: ‚Don‘t go home, the Russians will attack you!‘

Jana Tenková at the Vocational School of Horticulture in Pilsen in 1965
Jana Tenková at the Vocational School of Horticulture in Pilsen in 1965
zdroj: witness archive

Jana Tenková was born on 14 October 1948 in Nová Hospoda near Pilsen. Her mother Libuše Hraběová (nee Rumlová), a trained seamstress, sewed in a fashion salon in Plzeň. After the communists came to power, she lost her trade and remained a housewife. Her father, an electrician, was called Karel Hrabě. Initially a communist, he sobered up in 1956 when the USSR invaded Hungary. Her father actively opposed this, became inconvenient to the regime, and his children and grandchildren were not allowed to study. In 1959, the parents got a job in the newly built water treatment plant in Radčice. Her grandfather, Jaroslav Ruml, was active in the anti-fascist resistance during World War II as a communist. He woke up after the occupation of the Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact troops. The moment when the Soviet commanders beat their soldier to death in front of him at Nová Hospoda could not be erased from his memory. Grandmother Růžena Rumlová, nee. Lanštofová, a fashion designer trained in Paris, worked in the forest all her life. Thanks to her, Jana Tenková decided to take up gardening. She trained as a flower arranger. She married in 1973 and raised three children. Her husband, Petr Tenk, was expelled from university during his studies because of his sister‘s emigration. He was able to complete his education after the birth of his third child, he studied applied sciences. They both welcomed the Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism with joy. Jana Tenková finally opened her dream flower shop, where she worked until her retirement. In 2023, she was living in Nová Hospoda in Pilsen.