When the director announced that an assassination attempt on the Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich had been carried out, we rejoiced in our minds.
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Helena Brabencová was born on April 26, 1927 in Strašnice, Prague, in the family of a train driver. She also went to primary school in Strašnice. She remembers the funeral of President Masaryk and later the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia, during both of these events she was at Prague Castle. During the Protectorate, she first studied at the girls’ grammar school of the Order of St. Voršily in Vinohrady and after its closure she moved to the grammar school in Vršovice. He remembers the air raids on Prague and hiding in the school shelter from the time of the protectorate. She also recalls the cramped atmosphere after the arrival of Reinhard Heydrich and the deterioration of conditions after the assassination. The family actively monitored war events and listened to foreign radio, although it was forbidden. After the war, she successfully graduated and began studying at the Faculty of Law, Charles University, where she also met her future husband. He recalls the gradual deterioration of conditions at the faculty and the replacement of experienced teachers by communist cadres. After completing her studies, she worked in the administration of the company Československá plavba labská (later labsko-oderská) and after maternity leave she worked in the legal department for the construction of new cooperative flats in Prague (housing estates in Krč and Petřiny). In 2015, a witness lived in Prague-Bubeneč.
