Hana Horodyská

* 1948

  • "I could also tell you that about a week after the invasion I went to the Liberec crematorium for a joint funeral for the victims of the shooting. I went there with a friend who lived below us and her father, because my mother wouldn't let me go alone. The Liberec crematorium is shaped like a cube and you walk up the stairs, which were full of wreaths. And it was here that I first met Havel, the future president, and Jan Tříska. They both recited and Havel urged people to be calm and also not to provoke the soldiers."

  • "When the situation started to calm down, the mood was really perfect. We then went with my mum and dad to the town, which - now that I look back on it with hindsight - was really full of signs. For example, on the theatre it said - 'Today: 'Braniboři in Czech' or in the window of a famous butcher's shop - 'Today: 'Russian swine'."

  • "I remember August 21 [of 1968] because I was going to work, which we were starting earlier. We were living in a house with another family living below us. I don't know exactly what time it was, but at night the neighbor lady rang the bell and said to my mother, 'The Russians are occupying our republic. I don't know what's going to happen, get dressed and we're going to stand in line for flour, so that there might be a war and we'll get something out of it.' This really stuck in my mind."

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    Hradec Králové, 20.03.2024

    (audio)
    duration: 52:44
    media recorded in project Příběhy regionu - HRK REG ED
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I don’t know what’s going to happen, get dressed and we’re going to stand in line for flour

Graduation photograph, 1967
Graduation photograph, 1967
photo: archive of the witness

Hana Horodyská was born on 29 July 1948 in Pardubice as the eldest daughter of the Lhotskýs. Even before her birth, the family had to move to Liberec, as her father Jaroslav Lhotský was transferred there in 1946. After graduating from primary school, she continued her studies at the secondary pedagogical school, which she successfully completed in 1967. She saw with her own eyes the devastation in Liberec caused by the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops. A week after the invasion, together with her friend and her father, she attended a public commemoration for the victims of the invasion, at which Václav Havel and Jan Tříska were also present. After these events, she married Karel Horodyský and shortly afterwards they had two children. She devoted her entire professional life to teaching. In 2024 she lived in Holice, Pardubice.