Hana Bébrová

* 1950

  • "The way it worked was that the grain was brought in, it was weighed, how much it had, it was dumped out and it went to the cleaner so that there was no tares, no bolts, nothing to break the mill, from there it went to the huller where it was hulled.. those, nowadays those precious roots, the vocas, the scrap, that was given to the ducks, and the little pigs, from that they grew, and from that it went to the first grinding, the second grinding and the third grinding, the third one was the darkest..."

  • "The Russians came, the Soviet army, they surrounded the dormitory with tanks and wanted us to leave, that they would take it. But we were lucky to have a boy studying there with us whose dad was a cultural attaché at the embassy in Prague, and he arranged for everything to be withdrawn. So they took something else..."

  • "They took my father to Votice for questioning, told him they were going to arrest him and that he would never come back in his life, that they were going to have him taken away like the others, but the prosecutor did not give them permission to take him into custody. My dad came back, but since then... searches, whatever they liked, they took everything away, we... my dad taught us that when we went to school, that we couldn't walk on the countryside when there were cars or roads... walked a mile and a half, that we had to always walk in the middle so we'd have time to run away, and those gentlemen in those long leather coats and those hats chased us, they were happy about it, when we little kids in the first second grade were afraid of them, and they stayed with us till then. Dad was dying, and they were, under the window sitting by the gutter to see what was going on. I had a nervous breakdown..."

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    České Budějovice, 09.05.2023

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Don’t take shortcuts and stick to the people

Hana Bébrová, 1970
Hana Bébrová, 1970
photo: Archive of the witness

Hana Bébrová was born on 26 January 1950 in Tábor as Hana Maděrová. On her mother’s side the family owned a small farm and fields, on her father’s side the mill came into the family. However, the Maděra family lost both during the nationalisation. His father was interrogated by State Security Service (StB) and remained in its viewfinder for many years. Hana Bébrová recalls that as a child she grew up in constant fear of strangers and under the pressure of searches. After graduating from secondary industrial school in 1970, she married. After her maternity leave, she worked at Tesla in the workshop and later at Narex in Bystřice u Benešova. In her later years, in addition to her job and her own family, she also took care of young people, including children from a special school. In addition, she studied at the Pioneer Leadership School. In 2023 she lived in Votice.