Mgr. Anna Levová

“My cousin Jiří Větrovec was working as a tour guide and he was going to the Soviet Union and he thus visited those places and found out that the village Janova Dolina no longer exists, that it was basically part of Bazaltovo.”

“I completed my studies here; I graduated from the faculty of pedagogy. I graduated in 1968 and in 1969 my brother emigrated. They summoned me to the district committee and asked me: ‘Comrade, what kind of intercourse do you have with your brother?’ I am naturally quite unabashed, and so I cheekily replied that it certainly was not a sexual intercourse because that would not be possible. As I went to the meeting, I already brought my notice with me because it was clear to me that if I didn’t agree with the brotherly assistance of the Soviet army, they would hardly allow me to continue teaching. Well, they didn’t. As soon as they found out what my attitude was, they told me to find another job.”

“Our family re-emigrated after the war. All the people about whom I know were thus here. As far as I know, one of my aunts went to Poland because she married a Polish man. There were people of all nationalities living in Ukraine. My grandma and grandpa had been born here in Czechoslovakia, and they had been taken to the Volhynia region when they were little children. (So did they eventually get back to Czechoslovakia after all those years?) My grandma did, but my grandpa did not return anymore, he died in Volhynia. But grandma did come back to Czechoslovakia.”

“I have not experienced it, I only remember it as a little girl. Whenever the family gathered, they would start talking about it and remember the village. But to be honest, I always tried to get out of the house when they began speaking about it.”