“Okay, the Czech’ll hang me on one tree and the Russians’ll hang you on the other right opposite.”
Sofia Kalagasidou was born in 1942 in Greece. She escaped with her family to Albania, she was subsequently taken to Romania, where she attended primary school. She lived in a children’s home in the town of Oradea. In 1954 she was placed in a children’s transport headed to Czechoslovakia. Her biological father was a messenger for the partisans, he died from an illness in Albania. Her mother married another Greek (a Cretan) in Czechoslovakia. Sofia Kalagasidou spent another two years or so in children’s homes in Czechoslovakia - in Nové Hrady, Sobotín and Chrastav, where she finished primary school. She then moved to her family in the Jeseník district and learnt to be a seamstress. She worked as a weaver in Moravolen in Jeseník for 17 years. In 1974 she moved to Brno, she worked at Královopolská strojírna for two years, then at Zbrojovka (a munitions plant), and post-1989 at a post office. She has one daughter, however she did not marry the girl’s father. She keeps Czech traditions, but she cooks both Czech and Greek food, and she and her daughter both speak very good Greek. She had considered returning to Greece before her daughter’s birth, but not after. She was removed as a Greek citizen, so she accepted Czech citizenship. Only her brother returned to Greece, her mother and step-father both died in Czechoslovakia. She visits Greece occasionally, although not as often as before. She feels grateful towards Czechs, though she is hurt by the remarks of some Czechs, that Greeks are moochers.