Eva Merclová

* 1931

  • „A potom nás Němka vodila, museli jsme se seřadit a vodila nás i… No musela se nějak postarat, abychom ten čas nějak zabili, protože co s takovým klubem dětí, když nebyla nikde žádná zábava? Tak na to jsme se těšili. Řekla bych, že i dvakrát týdně nás vyvedla i za brány toho zámečku a šli jsme tím údolím Šárky. To si pamatuju, na ty procházky. A dokonce potom, přes tu paní hospodskou, se to dozvěděli naši příbuzní, tak moje babička a babička ještě té Jarky Smržové – ty babičky se sešly a šly proti nám, jenom aby nás viděly. Ale my jsme věděli, že nesmíme [reagovat], protože ta Němka to nevěděla, netušila to asi, že naši příbuzní takhle o nás věděli. Že se na nás přijdou podívat. Tak jsme museli projít kolem nich, jenom tak mrknout, že se vidíme. Ale nesměli jsme dát najevo, že se známe. Že to je někdo příbuzný. Tak se to tím alespoň trochu zpestřilo, že jsme se těšili na ty vycházky, kdy třeba uvidíme babičku.“

  • „Přivítaly jsme se s babičkou a oni okamžitě přišli a řekli nám, že jedeme za maminkou. Že nás vezou za maminkou. No, možná, že jsme tomu i chvilku věřily. A to si pamatuju takový moment, že jsme jeli Chotkovou silnicí, dneska z Malostranské, nahoru, Chotkovou silnicí. My jsme přece jenom brečely, přece jenom jsme z toho byly trošičku… Nevím, jestli jsme jim nevěřily, ale bylo nám to takové – tady jsme nechaly babičku, na nástupišti, protože z toho nástupiště nás hned odvedli. A já si pamatuju ten moment, jak jsme jeli tou, jak se tam ta Chotkova silnice točí nahoru, tak jela kolem tramvaj. To ještě jezdily tramvaje, kde byly zadní vozy otevřené, no a tak odsud asi viděli… To gestapácké auto bylo myslím dost poznatelné, protože ti gestapáci seděli vepředu a vzadu dvě ubrečené děti.“

  • „Takže jsme k nim měli jet na dovolenou, druhý den jsme měli odjíždět. Já jsem s maminkou připravovala… My jsme byly v ložnici, kde maminka připravovala zavazadla. A protože jsme bydleli ve vile, kde byla zahrada, tam jsme si mohly hrát, tak maminka nechávala klíč ve dveřích, abychom na ni pořád nezvonily. Pořád jsme něco chtěly, tu napít, tu něco… A tak jsem byla s maminkou v ložnici, kde jsme rovnaly věci do kufrů a od té ložnice se najednou otevřely dveře a tam stáli tři muži oblečení v zelených uniformách a představili se jako Geheime Staatspolizei. Takhle nějak se představovali, to si pamatuju. Vidím ten moment – maminku, jak maminka zbledla. Dali jí pak na ruce řetízky a já už jsem neviděla, jak ji odváděli, protože dole bydlela rodina domovníků a jejich dcera, dvě dcery měli a ta jedna byla o rok starší než já a s tou jsem hodně kamarádila, tak jsem hned běžela ke Kadeřábkům a říkala jsem to paní Kadeřábkové. Že k nám přišlo gestapo. A ona mi dala korunu a říkala: ‚Utíkej to zavolat tatínkovi, ať nechodí domů.‘ Protože bylo odpoledne, asi půl čtvrté, a on tak kolem té čtvrté chodil domů, a tak ona si myslela, aby zrovna nepřišel domů a zrovna do spárů toho gestapa. No ovšem bohužel, v té době, kdy jsem tam volala, tak už tam bylo gestapo u něj v kanceláři.“

  • „Tatínek to už čekal. Tatínek byl dost vysoký sokolský činovník, on byl místonáčelník Barákovy župy a okamžitě od začátku války založili organizaci, myslím, že se jmenovala Jindra, a hlavně pomáhali rodinám těch, kde už byli ti živitelé zatčení. Myslím, že hodně finančně tatínek pomáhal. Takže se sem tam, ne aby před námi řešili nebo se před námi o něčem mluvilo, ale vždycky se zmínili, že byl někdo zatčený, co třeba jsem zaslechla, nebo jsem byla poblíž a mohla jsem to chápat. Tyhle momenty, kdy se i gestapo zmínilo… A chodila ke mně učitelka na němčinu a ještě jedna moje spolužačka chodila k nám a ta učitelka němčiny k nám docházela. Asi od deseti let jsem se učila německy, čili dva roky. V jedenácti mě zatkli. A jak tak sem tam padlo něco o gestapu, tak já vím, že jsem měla v sobě takový nějaký pocit, že jsem se bála…Protože ta paní učitelka to líčila přesně – jak někoho známého zatkli, a ona říkala, jak přijelo zelené auto, a tak jsem věděla, že ti gestapáci jezdí v zeleném autě. A já si vzpomínám na ten pocit toho strachu, aby nepřijelo zelené auto a nepřijelo gestapo. No a přesně takhle se to stalo.“

  • “In the beginning, we were imprisoned in Jenerálka, which is a little chateau in Prague 6. The Gestapo took us there gradually. Me and my sister were taken there on August 28 and by then, there were already some five kids whose parents had been arrested. The Gestapo arrested the parents and brought the kids there. In our case, we weren’t brought there right after the arrest of our parents. My parents were arrested on July 14 and we were left to spend the holidays with my grandparents. When we came back on that August 28, my uncle, grandmother and the Gestapo were waiting for us at the train station. So they picked us up at that train station more than a month after they had arrested our parents. Then they took us to Jenerálka and they were subsequently bringing other kids there. Until November 1942, we were 45 kids there.”

  • “It was on the broadcast, they announced that the children would come back on 12 May, so their relatives came to pick them up. Fortunately we had a grandmother who took care of us. As I told you she had a villa in Žižkov where we later lived and we also graduated. We were very lucky that we've had a grandmother ... She was sixty-four when we came back. From today's perspective, this is not an incredibly high age, but anyway, if you consider that she had to raise two girls, fourteen and eleven years old ... Sometimes it happened that the siblings were split up into different families, although related ones. So, for instance, one of them would end up in one parent’s family and the other one in the family of the other parent. Sometimes, they weren’t treated very well. Some of them didn’t have an easy life in their new families.”

  • Interviewer: “Did you know General Klapálek?” Mrs. Merclová: “Klapálek, General Hasal, yes, I told. Mrs. Hasal was there with her daughter and they came to our place to clean up so we would chat a bit every now and then. I also got to know Mrs. Klapálková, her name was Olga and they called her ‘Páťa’. We even met long after the war. We all secretly tried to keep in touch. Professor Marková, who was interned there but was charged with overseeing the Kinderheim at the same time. The same is true for professor Louda who was responsible for overseeing the boys. He only stayed there for a short time. Eventually, there was aunt Šperlová. I mean we called her aunt because she was very close to us all. She was a great lady and really had a heart for us. She became a haven for many of us there.”

  • “The camp in Svatobořice was set up as a hostage camp for the relatives of those soldiers who went to abroad to fight Nazism in foreign armies. The families of General Hasal, Klapálek and other outstanding personalities. They even held the brother of Mr. Voskovec there. When the camp was established, there was also a Jewish-house in the corner of the camp and they allegedly treated the Jews terribly. They commander was a man called ‘Punťa’. He was a really cruel man. When I came there, he had already been reassigned somewhere else. The new commander was Schuster and he was much more humane. I remember that once he walked into the Kinderheim, which was an emergency housing located in one corner of the camp, and he would tell good-night stories to the children. I was eleven years old then and my sister was eight. He tried to remain a human. He prevented all the atrocities that had been common place there before.”

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    Obvodní výbor Svazu bojovníků za svobodu v Praze 6 , 24.04.2012

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When we returned from holidays, my uncle, my grandmother and the Gestapo were waiting at the train station for us

Eva Hejlová-Merclová, 1944
Eva Hejlová-Merclová, 1944
photo: archív pamětnice

Eva Merclová, née Hejlová, was born on 6 July, 1931, in the family of František Hejl and Milada Hejlová in Strašnice in Prague, where she also attended school. Her father was the leader of a Scout district called Barak. Here he met his future wife and the mother of Mrs. Merclová ​​and her sister Hanka. The Scouts formed the Jindra resistance group in the very beginning of the Nazi occupation as they rightly expected the occupiers to dismantle their organization. In 1939, the Nazis arrested the leaders of the Scout and the Jindra group was helping the families of those who had been arrested. The group also supported the paratroopers who assassinated Heydrich. On 14 July, 1942, the Gestapo arrested the parents of Mrs. Merclová and the children Eva and Hanka remained alone in the garden in front of the sealed apartment. The children were eventually adopted by family friends from Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou who took care of them for the rest of the holidays. But when the children were returning back to their grandmother in late August, they were arrested at the Denisovo nádraží train station and taken to the Gestapo at Jenerálka. The children remained there until April 1944, when they were moved to Svatobořice in Moravia, near Kyjov. The Svatobořice camp had been set up as a hostage camp for the relatives of those soldiers who joined foreign armies, or other important personalities. When the Red Army was approaching Hodonín in April 1945, the Germans released about half of the prisoners and the rest, including the children, was transported to the former labor camp in Planá nad Lužnicí. With the Red Army approaching, the threat of riots materialized and so the adults organized the transfer of the children to the nearby Turovec where they stayed at a local inn till 12 May, when they returned back home. Back at home, their grandmother took care of them, trying to replace their parents, who had been executed in Mauthausen, as good as she could. Mrs. Merclová’s mother was executed on 24 October, 1942, and her father on 26 January, 1943. Eva Hejlová graduated from the Business Academy in Resslova Street (former Edvard Beneš Czechoslovak Academy of Business) and married one year after graduation. In 1957, she gave birth to a son. Mrs. Merclová is an active member of the Czech Union of Freedom Fighters. In 1998, she got involved in the work of a local office of the Union. She’s been working as an accountant and an economist for the Union and the work has keept her happy throughout the long years of her commitment.