My grandma had a sewing machine, but just for women's things. Well, the Germans came when they were in troubles, they just walked from a house to a house and they were looking for somebody who could benefit them and forced my grandmother to sew military backpacks and those thick coats on that machine. And as Grandma also did resistance, so she said, "Well, this machine won't make it, it won't sew it, I can't, it's for light fabrics." Well they said that she has to. Well, of course, that the next day she went there, that she sewed it, she showed them that she tried it a bit and she couldn't make it. And they wanted a confirmation. So the machine had to go to a repairman. So, the repairman who sold the machines came and had to take it in with him. And there was nothing wrong to the machine, but he issued a confirmation that the machine really can't sew. So she gave them the sign there and she could rest for a while. This was the way how people with small things tried not to yield to the situation.
As he fought at Verdun, there he was also wounded at Verdun. I know it was such an coincidence that his friend's hobby saved his life. A friend, Grandpa, was like an army engineer, cutting wires and such stuff, building bridges. And his friend was riding a horse. And the Germans let the French, yes, they let gas on them. Well, Grandpa didn't seem to get out of it, and the friend was looking for him. And with the horse he saw him, he just found him somehow, so he came with the horse and took the grandfather, grabbed his hand and stomped it in the stirrup to pull him out. And he pulled him out all infested, and then took care of him, so actually a friend with a hobby saved my grandfather's life.
Jana Voborníková was born on October 8, 1950. She likes to remember her childhood, when her parents and grandparents paid a lot of attention to her and her brother. Her grandfather Josef Bělina was a legionnaire from the First World War and even at the end of the Second World War he helped to blow up bridges. Her grandma refused to sew uniforms and military backpacks for German soldiers. Jana graduated from a library school, she did not experience the year 1968 or 1989 in any special way.
