“We were affected by the anxiety related to what had happened in Munich. Suddenly there came a shadow into the sunny environment of the American Home. The times before that were wonderful times. We were deeply influenced by the life of President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and everything around him. Congratulations to his important anniversaries were always being sent. With great sympathy we followed his resignation and his funeral. The same with the funeral of Čapek several years later. Naturally we also felt deeply about the darkness brought about by the events in Munich. We felt really despondent. Again, it was the strength of Dr. Formanová, who in the toughest moments managed to lift the spirit of the young and inexperienced people, who so far were not able to imagine the humiliation that was awaiting us. She had experience, she knew about the world, and she was a mature personality and she knew what was probably in store for us. I remember that in 1941 we were staging the play Lucerna (Lantern). The auditorium was full of people. The scene was excellent. There were boys from art schools, who created beautiful props. Special people in the auditorium. I remember the scene when the musicians find themselves in the forest and they are attacked by the ghost that shouts at them: ‘I remember the field there times, and the forest three times, but I have never seen such villains there.’ Of course, the villain was an allusion to the Germans. And there was a response, the audience was completely shocked.”
“Doctor Formanová created a facility which served not only as a refuge for people, but which was instilled with a kind of democratic spirit and self-government. The students themselves chose their representative and their committee which dealt with the issues of this small community. They had to do the cleaning and bed-making themselves, and they were provided with the best accommodation possible and they were also given meals. They could do either vocational training or study a school. There were even some students who went on to universities. The democratic spirit which prevailed in the American Home was embodied by this self-governing community which was preparing the new people for their entry to the life in the new country that was being formed at that time, and they were already coming prepared from this institution with the necessary skills. It was a great advantage for them, because these young people received not only education, but also the training for life in freedom and democracy. I think that this merits a special mention, because in our country there was nothing else like this at that time.”
“Some Jews appeared there to help with agricultural work. I remember that one of them worked in the poultry house and he was taking care of the hens. Eduard Teller, owner of an important building in Masaryk Avenue. He came to us to work on the farm and his hands were ivory white and he really did accidentally step on a rake and it hit him. It really looked funny, just like in the comic cartoons. He really had no idea how to with a pitchfork. But he spent several months there. Meanwhile I noticed that certain Mr. Friedman brought three Jewish girls to the American Home and they survived there in his garden for several months. I think that they even managed to get to Jerusalem. But I don’t know what happened to Mr. Teller. One day he simply didn’t come to work.”
“There was heavy bombardment. When you have seventy or eighty airplanes above you and you are right in the middle of it all, it is a horrible feeling. What happened was that by coincidence I was running away from the factory to an open space in the fields where I hoped to find a hiding place. There were some trenches. I hoped I would be protected against shrapnel there. As I ran out of the factory in panic, the blast threw me inside a ditch. The sleeves on my clothes exploded. I suffered some bruises, because I fell into that hole. Later I learnt that two bombs, two hundred and fifty kilograms each, fell into the trench where I intended to hide and they dropped one on top of each other and exploded and all the people who were there died. There were many casualties in Kuřim.”
“I was awfully lucky, because the shooting happened in the immediate vicinity of our house; we lived in the centre of the town. My older son took part in the painting on the tanks during the shooting. I went out to look for him. When I saw that searching for him was futile, I went home. Just at that moment, the military vehicles and tanks were passing through the town and heading towards Brno. I hid myself in a small niche facing the Hotel Grand. I was silently praying: God, if only I could run across the street and hide in Grand. That was because I knew that there was a good chance to hide behind the hotel’s massive wall. At that moment, machine-gun fire started on the crossroad, because the hotel was unfortunately illuminated by lights. They shot through the window panes and through the hotel entrance door. I don’t know if the shooters were out of their minds. I crouched in the small niche and the shooting thus missed me. They moved on. I returned home completely devastated and said that I was not able to find Tonda. My wife and Pavel were totally broken, because they have also heard the din of the shooting. Tonda came home after a while. He said: ‘We exchanged a couple of road signs.’ So that was the main reason for the confusion among the soldiers. He thus returned home safe and sound.”
Antonín Kopřiva was born July 10, 1924 in small village Rakov near the town Hranice. When he was little, his mother died during complicated labour. His father then found a job in an educational institution for young people - in the American Industrial Home-School (Americká domovina) in Královo Pole in Brno, and the family followed him there in 1931. Antonín Kopřiva basically spent his entire childhood in this institution which during its existence made a lasting impact on hundreds of its male and female students, instilling in them the spirit of democracy and providing them with a solid foundation for their future lives. The American Home’s principal for many years was PhDr. Ema Formanová, whom Antonín affectionately remembers and whom he even calls his second mother. She has had a profound influence on his life and on the lives of many other young people. The democratic spirit and the desire for freedom have been preserved in the institution even during the difficult times of World War II. The institution was giving jobs to Jewish people without education, and they even provided a hiding place to the niece of Josef Valčík, one of the men who carried out the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. Shortly after leaving the American Home, in September 1943 Antonín Kopřiva had to start doing forced labour in the company Klöckner in Kuřim, which had a factory and a testing facility for aircraft engines there. Antonín worked there as a helper in the firemen’s rescue team and he also became involved in sabotage activities, which consisted in damaging the engines that have already passed the quality tests. He was nearly killed during the bombardment of the Kuřim factory. Several months later, during the bombardment of Brno, he remained buried under debris in the basement for several hours. At the time of filming he lived in Prostějov. He died on 25 September 2023.
T. G. Masaryk with his daughter Alice when visiting the American Home in 1928. The president is holding an envelope with a cheque for to 70 000 Czech Crowns which he donated to the American Home
T. G. Masaryk with his daughter Alice when visiting the American Home in 1928. The president is holding an envelope with a cheque for to 70 000 Czech Crowns which he donated to the American Home
