Milena Hrozná, roz. Machníková
* 1920
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(Q) And you were already in Czechoslovakia in September? "Well, that's when I had to start school. That was the eigth class." (Q) So the last year of grmmar school? "Yes, yes. I was at the grammar school in Klatovy when Germans came. That was another terror! How those Germans marched in, people were talking about it, and what with Hitler roaring there... Now when they took the Sudetes, Syrový was there. I say it was terror, but I still feel it like that. Syrový was there to represent the Czechoslovak government I guess. Mother went to visit them, they lived in a house near Prašný Bridge, with Bělinka, she was this odd woman, we always talked about her and her oddities. Mother sat there with them, she said he came home in the evening and he was completely devastated and he was saying that Germans weren't interested in Chodsko at all, when they took the Sudetes. There wasn't a single German there, you see as soon as there was something in the place, like a quarry for sand or rock, or I don't know, some mineral, as soon as there was something interesting there, they took it." (Q) Klatovy actually became almost a border city, that zone. "Well, we were right at the edge. They did things on purpose, for instance they cut off the road from Klatovy to Pilsen, because there were two German villages on the way, I can't even remember what their names were. And so it was impossible to go straight from Klatovy to Pilsen, instead one had to go to Prague through Horažďovice. That's the kind of thing they did, and that was incomparable to what happened afterwards."
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"One had to kind of fight for their life, try to get on somehow." (Q) That it was like trying to save one's skin. One has to think completely different then... "No, not like as long as I live, the other can cop it, not like that, but one didn't have time for anything else! For instance, I knew three western foreign languages, and they were forming exclusive companies here, the ones for international trade, and they had no way enough people. And when I came to them with these three western foreign languages, they would hardly let me leave even, but immidately afterwards I would always receive a letter saying they had no vacancies. So in the end and thanks to a lot of favours I got a place in construction, typing away in some office. I did that for a while, then my boss told, a very nice person actually, in Žitná Street - Barva used to be there, after them it was Stavba silnic a železniz (Road and Railway Construction) - he said: 'Girl, I can't keep you here, I'm sorry, you're really nice, but I won't mess up my background check because of you. I'll put you near Stalin (a monument in Prague - transl.), you'll have it close to home, and you'll just have to shovel sand for a while, until something else turns up.' Sort of existential... Well I didn't shovel the sand for long. Those that shovelled mostly had a degree, there was some good company there. I got back into the office and then I worked in the (company) radio."
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"Father said that these rumours, like that I had taken a million to Switzerland, or that Mother is Konrad Henlein's sister, those were just... Father said that they were spread by the Germans, to alienate people. Of course, probably, because no one else would have thought that up. But they had a lot of success." (Q) That was purposeful disinformation that always works.
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"So I went home, it was terribly cold here, the wartime winters were terrible cold. So I went home to our central heating and bathroom. I did some sort of sowing, but I didn't have a work card. They gave out these Arbeitsbuchs or whatever, and I didn't have one. And then there was this other group, some four or five girls from Klatovy families. And at the place I did the sowing, some of the seamstresses that sowed illegally, those were decent people too, but mostly they were prostitutes. And we received a summons to a factory in Dresden. And so we were supposed to go with the prostitues, us from the classy families. So some of us got married quick, three girls I think, so they didn't have to go. And I got out of it thanks to a doctor who daignosed me with a fake illness - trigeminal inflammation, supposedly it's impossible to prove. The Gestapo checked up on me later on."
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"And so he said to the chauffer, that's what the chauffer told me afterwards: 'What should I do?' At the time, one would her ladyship: 'Her ladyship invited me to the country, and I have a match to attend!' And the chauffer said to him: 'Oh well, general sir, excuse yourself...' And he said: 'I can't do that if she's invited me there...' Well, he couldn't give a rat's tail about the country if he was missing out football in Prague! So that's what I know about Vobratílek, that he was a good friend and a furious football player..."
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Praha, 12.09.2006
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“In the end I turned to the Christian faith, which I found to be moral”
Milena Machníková (married name Hrozná) was born in 1920 in Klatovy as the second child of a grammar school professor, member of parliament and later Minister of National Defence František Machník. She spent her childhood surrounded by very important people, mainly generals (she often remembers gen. Syrový and gen. Dostál, and partially even president E. Beneš), and also other politicians of the First Republic. Her family lived in Klatovy, so Machníková studied the local grammar school. In 1939, she was still able to enter the Faculty of Arts, but not to actually begin her studies there, as the universities were being shut down. After the war, she continued studying, receiving her degree in English and French in 1948. Already during that time she was in a bad financial situation, as her father had lost his pension. Her graduation di not improve anything, as she could not find any work. Thus she was glad when she was given the opportunity to work at a construction company, first as a secretary. She had to drop to an assistant worker (shovelling sand), as her boss could not keep her at a higher position due to her background unfavourable to the regime. Later, she was accepted as a telephone operator. She even worked at the company radio station. In the late Fifties she was placed as a teacher at a grammar school (she was almost fifty by then). She remained there until her pension.