Olga Rozehnalová

* 1935

  • "We made a collection and bought a bouquet. Olga took it home, saying that when school was over, she would take it to the monument [of T.G.M.]. We went from afar and Olga [Stehlíková] and Tonda Kavička put the flower there. And when Stalin died, we arranged to come to school dressed in festive clothes. To celebrate that he had died. So, we came to the school in festive clothes for the celebration, and Professor Nováčková came and sent us to the garden to rake leaves. So, we went. On that day there was a picture of Stalin on the front page of the Mladá fronta magazine, which we had to subscribe to. The girls raked leaves, the boys made a fire and lit it with the Mladá fronta and shouted: 'Come and see, we are doing a dry distillation of Stalin's beard!'"

  • "In the parish garden, Olga and I broke off all the lilacs that still weren’t open. We were on Vrahovská Street, where there were a lot of people, and we threw flowers at the Russians coming in. Our house was empty, only our family lived there. Out of the blue, a Russian truck pulled up and there were Russian women lying on the blankets. It was full of Russian soldiers. They all moved into our house, there was a vacant three-room apartment upstairs, two corner rooms were vacant downstairs. I know my mother said that Mr. Fitzner's sister used to have a shop there, but as far as I remember it was empty. They moved in there, too. I don't know where they were from, but they couldn't even make a fire in the stove. They made a fire on the tiles in front of the stove. There were still brick stoves being built there and the tiles in front of them. They made a fire on those and cooked. The whole house was an awful mess and I know they moved out after about a week. There were chandeliers in the Fitzner apartment, and the bowls were taken off of those, and there was poop in every one of those bowls. I don't know if they didn't know how to use the toilet..."

  • "We were in a cellar on the corner in Českobratrská Street. During one of the air raids, two phosphorus bombs fell there, broke through the roof and fell on the attic. Luckily, my dad was at home, so I know that my mom soaked some terry towels for him, put them over his head, and he ran up to the attic and put it out. And then, when it was broken, my parents arranged with Olga Stehlíková's parents that we would go to their shelter in the parochial house. That was right across from the grammar school. There was an infirmary in the grammar school and in the Kolárová school opposite the grammar school. They told themselves that there were red crosses on the roof, that there probably wouldn't be any bombing there, but it wasn't true. When we were in their shelter, a bomb fell in front of the grammar school, a bomb fell in the garden of the Stehlík family, a bomb fell in the Finanční Square, then a carpet of bombs fell in the garden of Dr. Škrach on Olomoucká Street, we were pretty scared. The cellar window was piled with bricks, which flew in. Then the parish priest went upstairs and all the ceilings on the first floor were fallen in, so it ended up worse there than in our flat."

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    Olomouc, 15.06.2022

    (audio)
    duration: 01:25:01
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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When Stalin died, we dressed up to school

Olga Rozehnalová, 1950s
Olga Rozehnalová, 1950s
photo: Archív pamětníka

Olga Rozehnalová, née Hubrová, was born on 14 February 1935 in Prostějov as the older of two children. She and her parents, Josef Hubr and Anna Hubrová, née Frantová, lived in Prostějov. Her father worked for the municipal police and her mother ran a tailor’s shop in their flat in Českobratrská Street. Her father had to enlist as part of the mobilisation in 1938, and the witness remembers waving to him from her mother’s arms. He soon returned home and continued to work in the police force. He was a member of the Social Democrats, later merged with the Communist Party, and after a few years he was expelled. The family survived the World War II without much drama, which awaited them at its end. Prostějov was bombed by the Allies and the house where the Hubrs lived was bombed, as were several other places in the neighbourhood. The fifties were also a test of life for the witness. For laying flowers at the Masaryk monument, she was expelled from grammar school with her entire class and had to go to work. Her father also lost his job. She did not return to school, but worked as an invoice clerk and accountant, and later in financial control. She and her husband Jiří have two children, and at the time of the recording in 2022, the witness lived in Prostějov.