Marie Čechová
* 1932 †︎ 2024
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"The Americans had already come. My uncle Václav Bednář owned a confectionery in the square and was the only one who could speak English, so he signed it. Then he got punished for that in 1948. He translated everything for the Americans, also during celebrations. We used to go when we were little, and those pictures were taken in front of the command post that was in the main hotel in Preštice, the US Army headquarters. We used to go there to sing in front of it. There was this little soldier boy who used to sing with us. They took a picture of us and sent it to New York, and were shown in an American newspaper singing Czech songs."
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"Even before 5 May, people were coming to the clothes shop. There was one across the square on the corner, and they were already selling tricolours. We would pin them on. The Germans were still there, and suddenly there was a ruckus and they said a death march was coming. I was a little kid, so my mother wouldn't let me go. People ran to the outskirts of Preštice to see the march, but the Germans didn't guard them much; they knew that the war was basically over. They wanted to go meet the Americans and avoid the Russians, so they were kind of mild. I know people gave them bread and food and the Germans let them do it; they didn't shoot them for giving prisoners anything; it was peaceful. Then there was a second attack and Germans were coming in from bombed out Germany and our guys beat them up, and I didn't like that as a kid."
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"He [my father] was there [forced labour in the Reich] for about a year and a half. He came back and told us - I was a little kid listening with my mouth open - how it was being bombed and that the end of the war must have been close. People ran to us and said, 'Do something! Your girl tells people that Hitler's going to lose - you could get shot for that!' They had to tell me that Mr. Hitler wasn't so bad, so my parents wouldn't get arrested if I said he was going to lose."
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Full recordings
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Praha, 19.06.2024
(audio)
duration: 01:21:02
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“It’s all air raids, the end of the war is coming,” Daddy said.
Marie Čechová was born in Pelhřimov on 1 December 1932 to Antonín Čech and Alžběta, née Margoldová. Soon after her birth, the family moved from Božejov near Pelhřimov to Jevany near Prague. They stayed there until her age five or six. Then they moved again to Dnešice in the Plzeň region. She started primary school on 1 September 1939, the day the Second World War officially began. During the war, her father was on total deployment in the Reich for about a year. During the Heydrichiad, the witness experienced a house search. Sometime in late 1944/early 1945, the family moved to Přeštice to live with the mother’s cousin. This is where they saw liberation by the US Army. One of the soldiers stayed with her and she was in contact with his family later. Not long after the liberation, the Čech family moved to Prague. In the summer of 1948, Marie Čechová took part in the XI. All-Sokol Meeting. She completed grammar school with a focus on teaching, which finishing with a high school diploma in 1951. Then she started to study at the Faculty of Education. During her studies, she had to teach in Cvikov near Liberec for a year and a half. She worked as a governess and then taught at a school in Žižkov, Prague. She never joined the Communist Party. Marie Čechová died on 20 September 2024.