Anděla Bečicová

"When my daughters were going to school, people went to the principal for applications to religious classes and he always said: 'But you are destroying your child's life, because they will not get to a university.' And so I told myself, that my ones studied well, and so they hopefully will not have a problem. I did not say anything to him, I took the application, filed it; it is true, that my daughtes were the only ones who went to religious classes until the eighth grade. And because the older one had straight 1s [the highest mark], only the PE teacher gave her a two, even though she said: 'Mom, that was a smear on me', and so I said, that it does not matter, but she had to go to entrance exams. She applied to an economic school in Zlín. She had studied up, she had a passion for it, she was smart, so she did not have any problem getting into that school. But when she finished at the economic school and wanted to go study law, then the director Mr. Filipec laughed in her face, and told her: 'You? With your religion? You can maybe put in an application to an agricultural school.' And so my daughter did not put in any application, and went to work as a secretary at JZD Ploština..."

"In those years, when Gottwald's father-in-law was Čepička, the minister of defense, then Lucka's uncle, he was this jokester, he went to the pub almost every day, it was called U Grózů, it was at the intersection, from which you could go to Štítná and to the train station... And as a jokester he threw his hat on the hanger in that pub and said: 'Here you will hang, čepička!' [čepička means a hat in Czech but was also the name of the then minister of defense]. He thought that it was a good joke, but someone snitched on him and they locked him up in Mírov. I heard, that he was there for a year, his older brother said that it was three years, we do not know. But he came back so devastated, that he was scared of everything. He soon died. But a friend came to visit him, the uncle of the Juřic family, and he asked him, how it happened, and he replied, that it was mostly his own fault. Because at that trial, when the judge asked him, if he knew what he was saying, when he threw the hat there, then instead of saying that he was drunk and that he does not remember, he said, that he knew what he was saying. And they locked him up because of that. And he said, that in there the murderers lived pretty well, that the prison guards did not dare mess with them. But they beat the political prisoners as much as they wanted."

"They said that it had to be a JZD. Only nobody wanted to sign up. Father said: 'And so I will work hard for forty years here and with a wave of the hand I will give it all away?' 'No, no, it will be communal,' and whatever else. I know, that nobody wanted it. My mother's brother Staňa, who was with the district, pressured my mother a lot, for us to sign it, because the chair was getting loose underneath him, that his sister did not want to sign. Back then it was horrible pressure, just really. And we had one of the five largest farms in the village. Besides us, there were the Janíček family, but signed as Divoš, they were already taking out the cattle, because they said: We will take away your cattle, we will resettle you to the border lands, and you will end here.' And with that family they were already taking the cattle out. Everyone cried, the women gathered there. Our parents were home, they were also crying. I was nearly fifteen years old then. I flew home, that I will tell our parents, only they could already see it through the blinds. I heard, how mother was telling father in the other room: 'What are we going to do? We are next. What do you think?' Or they will resettle us to the border. And do you want to start over now somewhere after all these years? Do you want to start over in the border lands?' And I just flew into that room and started talking completely hysterically: 'We don't want to move to the border. Sign it then.' Stupid girl."

"We were walking out of eight class at fourteen years old. And so we all gathered, that was then called the drawing room at our school, it was the largest room. All of us, who were leaving, we were invited and we listened to what she was telling us. That she needed everyone, who was interested in going to that medical school, to raise their hands. Only two of us raised our hands: Marta Chuchmová, who was the daughter of the bricklayer, and me. We signed some papers, we still had to get them signed at home. I cannot remember anymore, if it was a week or fourteen days later. The school intercom sounded: 'Lysáková, Anděla to the principal's office.' The principal, Mr. Kouřil, who stood by me a lot, because he agreed with it, when I applied, said: 'You are at the right place, this profession will be just right for you.' And I told myself: 'I do not know why.' He did not wait for me in his office, but in the corridor, and said: 'You know, I have to tell you something sad for you. Your school denied you.' I asked him: 'And why? I have good grades.' And he said: 'You have more than 10 ha, and so you can only go into agriculture.' He saw, that I was beginning to cry. And he said: 'Do not worry, you will get married, and so will be able to get out of that agriculture.'"

"It was a big advantage during the war. Father said, that it is heresy to say so, but that they were doing best during the war. Because you know why? That my grandmother as a German was able to sort out anything. More hog-killings, and if anyone wanted anything, then she would sort everything out in the bureaus for those people, who needed something. And so father said, that my grandmother proved herself to be very good in this regard. She was very generous even to Roma people, to everyone. She said, that people should be helped. When the tinkerers, glassmakers, and everyone else came from the Slovakian side, they came to sleep over only at our place. It was already said, that it would be with us. They slept on these hay beds in the kitchen near the oven, near the stove. I remember that as a child. And I told myself to not have to go pee in the night, as somebody would be lying there. And so mother told me, that I should not drink too much at night, when there is someone there. You know, that they told that amongst themselves. Our grandmother was so... even though she was a German... But for these travelers, for everyone she was very solidary for everyone and helped."