“It was the year – Milada Horáková was executed on 27 June 1950.” – “Yes.” – “And you were by your uncle [Vladimír Trunda, an executioner, who executed Horáková] probably later during the summer holidays?” – “We were there in 1950.” – “After June?” – “In July and August, during the summer holiday.” – “It was not very pleasant for you.” – “No.” – “Do you think his profession of an executioner influenced his character?” – “I think it did. That is why he was so mean to us. With no reason.”
“My mom remarried later, it was such a brute that he beat us again. Terrible. After I got married and I moved to Patočkovi to Mokrý which is part of Všeň, I always told myself that I do not want one more day of childhood. There was the institution and later the stepfather… I didn't know what family was until I moved to Všeň.”
“The process with my mom went on this way – in the last moment the door swung open. My mom told me about it. She thought that it [trial] will not continue that she will be acquitted. The door swung open and some woman came running, pointed at my mom and the result was five years.” – “Was it the woman with whom she had a dispute during the war?” – “Yes, it was the woman.” – “Do you remember her name?” – “No.” – “Did your mother have an advocate?” – “I think she was alone.”
“There were nuns. They were young women who did not want to be forced to labour in Germany so they took up Christianity.” – “During the war?” “Right. And they stayed there. And they were not kind. They beat us up. There was a girl who was in the fifth year of school and she wet herself. It was all because of psyche. We were lice-infested and no one cared about it. We went to school and we had to run two kilometres. And if there was an afternoon class, we had to run for a lunch and run back to school to continue.”
“She [mother] was Czech. My father was German. And that is why they took us out of the cellar and took us to the school where they shaved mom’s head. She came back to us beaten.” – “On the 5th May?” – “About that time. I remember I cried terribly and shouted because I could not recognize my mom. And the last money left which she took to the shelter she paid for a dirty coffee because they did not give us food so that we would not cry.”
Kristina Patočková, née Hockeová, was born on 21 April 1941 in Prague’s cadastral district Vinohrady. Her father Ludvík Hocke was of German nationality and her mother Kristina Trundová was of Czech nationality. Her mother was sentenced to five years in prison after the war and her father as a Wehrmacht soldier ended in defeated Germany. Orphaned four-years old Kristina and her five years older sister Marie Magdalena were taken care of by their grandmother and grandfather for some time. Nevertheless, both girls ended up in a children’s home near Horšovský Týn. Kristina remembers mean nuns who beat children. When their mother was released from prison, both sisters spent part of summer holidays 1950 by their uncle Vladimír Trunda who was an executioner and shortly before he executed Milada Horáková. Kristina says he beat them as well. Later, the witness was apprenticed as a cook. In 1959 she married Jiří Patočka with whom she has two children, Kristina and Jiří. In 2021 she lived in Přepeře near Turnov. She was employed until 2019.
Wedding photo of witness' parents. The bride is standing, the bridegroom is sitting on her right side, grandmother Trundová is on the far left, grandfather Trunda is on the far right
Wedding photo of witness' parents. The bride is standing, the bridegroom is sitting on her right side, grandmother Trundová is on the far left, grandfather Trunda is on the far right
