Eva Dědková

“We attended the normal school, not the pedagogic one, but elementary grades as they used to call it. The bunch of girls, who used to meet there, we knew each other from church or elementary school, we had the catholic religion and our parents raised us in that manner, and there was a huge church in the neighbourhood. And imagine that when the religion was forbidden or there were sanctions, it was already persecuted and we would secretly come to the parish. And before that the priest Honzírek (oh my, I remember all those names and not the things that happened yesterday) and he taught our classes of religion and we already agreed to come on a certain day in a week, I do not know the time, I don’t really remember. So around four or five girls we would gather in the church, in the part we were allowed to come in and he taught us. And then we would go to the communion. Well and then we were supposed to join the confirmation and were promised the first classes. And I was around fifteen years old and I did not even attend the pedagogics school and my aunt was different, my father was out of four siblings and she promised me a hand watch: ‚Eva, if you come to the confirmation, I will be your god-mother,‘ your parents already agreed, ‚and you get a watch from me.‘ But the confirmation did not take place, as it was too public and I did not get any watch. And do you know, when I got my first watch? When I got eighteen and my husband-to-be bought it for me.“

“So I remember, that my parents were sadder and sadder, my mum used to cry, as the time of air raids began and moreover, my little brother was born. He was six years younger than me so I was happy to have a baby brother, but my parents had even more worries. And I know that when the air raids took place and the sirens went off, my mum shouted: ‚Come on, children, we have to go down the cellar.‘ Whether it was in the afternoon, in the morning or even at night. The worst thing was at night they had to dress us in warm underwear to get eventually ready to leave the house and stay somewhere safe in case of bombing.“