When an order came from above, atrocities had to be committed
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Kamila Hnátová, née Jiříková, was born on 7 March 1941 in Prague to Kamila and František Jiřík. Her father participated in the construction of the border fortifications during the First Republic. Later he established his own construction company in Prague, where his wife helped him with administration. Kamila Hnátová’s first memories date back to the Second World War. She recalls the sound of sirens and escapes into cellars. After the communist coup, her father had to lay off about a dozen employees, but continued the business himself until 1953. Eventually, he quit to put his daughter through high school. Between 1955 and 1959, the witness studied at the building industry school in Prague’s Smíchov district. After graduation, she took a job as a designer at the State Institute for the Reconstruction of Monumental Towns and Buildings. In 1963, she married her colleague Miroslav Hnát, with whom she later had two daughters. She lived through the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops in the centre of Prague. In the 1970s, she joined the General Investor organisation, which fell under the competence of the National Committee of the Capital City of Prague (NVP). It dealt with preparatory engineering activities. In 2023 she lived in Bohnice, Prague.
