Helena Bujnochová

* 1933

  • “All foodstuffs were only sold in exchange for food ration stamps, and windows had to be covered in the evenings. While we were little children, we were not going to school in winter during WWII, because there was no heating, and we would only come to school to pick up our assignments and then study at home what we had been told.”

  • “The Second World War began on September 1, 1939 and I began going to school. To the Za Mlýnem School. There is still an elementary school there today. I was going there for two and a half years, and then an order was issued and I had to transfer to the Božena Němcová School. During WWII, which lasted for six years, the situation was not easy. There were food ration stamps and we children were getting two or three candies a day so that we would not run short of them. All kinds of food were only available with food stamps. We had to cover the windows. It was not allowed to have lights in the streets at nights. The Gestapo office was in Michalov in Přerov, that’s where the school of ceramics and the kindergarten is today.”

  • “Work and teaching, this is what filled my life. Beautifully… You chose a nice profession which is meaningful. I enjoyed going to school and I have been among children since I was a little girl.”

  • Full recordings
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    Městská knihovna v Přerově, 11.05.2015

    (audio)
    duration: 42:27
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
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In work and education is our salvation

Bujnochova Helena.jpg (historic)
Helena Bujnochová

Helena Bujnochová, née Kramářová, was born April 13, 1933 in Přerov. Her father was an administrator of the local lime-kiln and her mother was a housewife. The Second World War fortunately did not have any significant impact on the family, but Helena remembers the circumstances which were making life difficult for people, like food ration stamps, night curfews, or hiding in the basement during air raids. She could not forget the fate of pilots who were involved in an air accident over Přerov and who either died when the airplane caught fire or were arrested by Germans after parachuting down. She knew people who were executed during the war or died in air raids. When she grew up she worked as a teacher and thanks to her diligent work she still feels perfectly fit.