Helena Grégrová

* 1940

  • "Someone came to us one day and asked, "Have you got any wine?" I said, "We don't have any liquor, but maybe some wine." And Pavel Tigrid came, who was probably sent by Schulz [Milan Schulz, editor of Radio Free Europe in Munich, ed.] to come and see us. - You seem to meet people by accident... - It must have been very early after his arrival. He came to us and asked for wine. I remember it was very nice. The brother of the director Otokar Vávra, Jaroslav Vávra, lived in the opposite flat. I know that after the 1989 we had a worn carpet in the hallway. I still remember that. That's how many of us were there, that's how many people would come to us..."

  • "Daddy had a list made; he had a huge library and he didn't know what he was going to do with all the furniture and everything... He knew old Gregor who was to become my later father-in-law later on. Eduard Grégr was born in 1900 and knew my father through legal stuff. Dad told hm he didn't know what to do with all the furniture. That was in 1952. Old Grégr said, "I have a son, he is twenty-one and has his driver's licence, and we own a Tatra car." His son Ed, the one with the licence, was my husband man. That's how I met my husband. He was nine years older, he was twenty-one. I was twelve.... They had some kind of paper warehouse... He used to drive the car over the Legion Bridge to Hlubočepy where he and my dad would stack it all inside. Then maybe someone would come to buy something. That's how it was."

  • "[Father] despaired about what we were going to do and where we were going to stay. Our grandmother in Školská said immediately: 'Don't worry about the girls, they will live here!' But my parents were banned from Prague. Where were they supposed to go? They had nothing; they had left lots of beautiful furniture and silver back in the apartment. That night, I thought I was going to lose my parents. "Who made the decision that they had to move out?" We had nothing but the piece of paper. "Is this a letter from some national committee?" It's the National Committee of Prague 1. "So they just said that you're leaving?" "Yes."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Praha, 28.03.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 01:32:23
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
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A great disaster struck our family in 1952

Helena Grégrová at the time of filming in March 2023
Helena Grégrová at the time of filming in March 2023
photo: Post Bellum, March 28, 2023

Helena Grégrová was born on 31 March 1940 into the family of Jakub Husník, the inventor of the heliotype, and Duras, a prominent Prague lawyer and the owner of several houses and a large estate in Tetín. Father, JUDr. Jaroslav Husník, was an attorney at law, a vice-president of the Society of Friends of the USA and a legal representative of the St. Ursula Order. In 1952, the Husníks’ apartment was confiscated and they were evicted from Prague, and the family farm in Tetín was nationalized. Helena graduated from high school in Školská Street in 1957. Because of her father’s “political scar” and her bourgeois background, she was not allowed to study in university. Throughout her life she worked as a clerk, first at the Institute of Health Education and Awareness (1958-1962), then at the Pharmacological Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. In 1962 she married Eduard Grégr Jr., the son of the owner of the Dr. Eduard Grégr Printing House, nationalised after 1948. Together with the Grégrs, they lived in a small apartment in Krocínova Street from 1965 on. In the 1970s, the Grégrs were harassed by the StB because of their contacts - they kept in touch with the family of Milan Schulz, an editor of Radio Free Europe in Munich and friend of Pavel Tigrid. In 1999, the house in Hálkova Street - the building of the former printing house - was returned to the Grégr family. Helena Grégrová was living in Prague in 2023.