"There was an amnesty in 1960. That means that uncle Pepa came home. When uncle Pepa came home, of course his boys took care. They let him go, but before he came home, there was a listening device plugged into the villa in Kruh. Everyone knew that. When my uncle had lost all his possessions, there was a policeman living in the villa on the ground floor where they had an apartment. My uncle's second wife, Fanynka, was given accommodation upstairs, where the offices used to be. We knew something was going on downstairs. In addition, a so-called relative of the policeman, who, as everyone knew, used to buy his salami from the butcher's shop opposite, started living there. It was strange how this relative lived. When the uncle came, the home looked like this."
"I stayed at home and Vláďa went. I knew he was going to march to the Castle. We knew something was going on. Then I looked for my brother, he didn't come home. I thought, 'Where am I going to look for him?' I met a boy who was hanging around me. I was like, 'Hey, I don't know where my brother is. He was at the Castle, and he didn't come back.' He was a boy from the other side, but he said to me, 'Well, go to number four [Bartolomejska 4] and go ask, it's logical. They'll tell you.' I did. It was a revolutionary time, you met different people. There was this uncle, a policeman, who when I was talking to him, breathless and crying, he said, 'Oh yeah, he's here. There's a lot of them. Don't worry, they'll leave them for three days. They'll question them and send him home to you.' I went back. At that time, Vaclavik and Sucharda had commercial rooms and warehouses in the courtyard of 55 Wenceslas Square. They were there. Uncle Pepa wanted to send cookies to his son Zdenek in England, he was there legally at the time, but they wouldn't let him. So he had it there. I said, 'Vlada's locked up, but they're going to interrogate them.' They said, 'Look, here's a box of cookies. God knows if they'll give them food in there.' So I grabbed it and went back in. The uncle took it from me and said, 'Well, yeah, it won't be too bad, but they'll be cold and there's no blankets, so if you have a blanket...' So I went and I was able to bring him another blanket."
"When we used to go to the Krkonoše Mountains when we were kids, it was approaching the thirty-seventh year, and you would meet German tourists there. Some of them wore those special hats and knee socks and were noisy. And I remember that we went, my father went with us. Uncle was at home, Jirka was with us. We met some Germans and they greeted us: 'Heil Hitler!' Dad said, 'Hello!' My cousin Jirka already knew a few words of German, he immediately offered to say to her: 'Du bist deutsche Kuh.' [You are a German cow.] Dad said: 'No such thing! You saw that I said hello, that she paused, that she understood, but she won't swear.' My parents had a different relationship - both dad and mom - they were trading in Germany when they were young. They lived in the mountains with a German family for a while to learn German. They knew German. Very often they were better off people, but I know they were remembered fondly. That's where it got a little bit broken. There were also Sudeten people. When the new Sokol gymnasium was built in Vrchlabí, Mrs. Hájková belonged to our circles. Mr. Hájek was employed in Prague by Uncle Pepa. Some German started to make fun of the new Sokol gymnasium and I think he got a slap from Mrs. Hájek."
Jarmila Šrámková, née Suchardová, was born together with her twin brother Věra on 3 May 1928 in Roztoky u Jilemnice to her parents Zdená, née Václavíková, and Vlastimil Suchardová, whose son Vladimír was three years older. The children grew up in the family of a textile manufacturer who, together with his brother-in-law Josef Václavík, founded the company Václavík and Sucharda in 1928. Both were Sokol and National Socialists. In 1940 Josef Václavík was arrested by the Gestapo. He was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp until 1943. Many of his relatives became members of the anti-Nazi resistance during the war. Jarmila Šrámková attended the Jilemnice gymnasium, which was soon closed by the Nazis. She finished her studies in Jilemnice after the war. In 1947, Sister Věra married Vladimír Svatý, a resistance fighter and owner of a patent for a jet textile loom. The communists imprisoned him in the summer of 1948 to prevent him from rushing across the border with his revolutionary invention. The same year, they expelled his brother Vladimir from the university, who emigrated a year later. Václavík and Sucharda’s factory was nationalised in 1951. In the same year, Josef Václavík and Vlastimil Sucharda were arrested and sentenced to prison. In 1954, her father returned and Jarmila Sucharda married MUDr. Jaroslav Šrámek and they lived together in Prague. Jarmila Šrámková worked as a laboratory technician in hospitals, and studied at university by distance learning. She was interrogated several times by State Security (StB) and unsuccessfully tried to get her to cooperate. MUDr. Jaroslav Šrámek, an epidemiologist, travelled for work. In the late 1960s, she and her husband often travelled abroad. The Šrámeks survived the vetting process in the 1970s unchanged. They welcomed the Velvet Revolution with enthusiasm. The extended family stuck together, and although the Šrámeks had no children, many relatives still visited them. In 2019, the witness was widowed. In 2023, she was living in Prague.
A large family gathering to celebrate the return of uncle Josef Václavík from the Dachau concentration camp in 1943.
Top row from the left: Zdenek Václavík, Milena Konopáčová, Vlastimil Sucharda, Zdeňka Suchardová, Josef Ducháč, Jaroslava Mečířová, Jaroslava Suchardová (witness)
Row in the middle: second from the left Anna K. Václavíková, Božena Mečířová, Vlastimil Mečíř, Helena Konopáčová, Věra Konopáčová, last in line Jiří Václavík
Bottom row from left: Vladimír Sucharda, Věra Suchardová with a child on her lap, Josef Václavík, Zdenka Václavíková, Josef Václavík Sr., Marie Václavíková, JUDr. Jan Konopáč, Jan Konopáč
A large family gathering to celebrate the return of uncle Josef Václavík from the Dachau concentration camp in 1943.
Top row from the left: Zdenek Václavík, Milena Konopáčová, Vlastimil Sucharda, Zdeňka Suchardová, Josef Ducháč, Jaroslava Mečířová, Jaroslava Suchardová (witness)
Row in the middle: second from the left Anna K. Václavíková, Božena Mečířová, Vlastimil Mečíř, Helena Konopáčová, Věra Konopáčová, last in line Jiří Václavík
Bottom row from left: Vladimír Sucharda, Věra Suchardová with a child on her lap, Josef Václavík, Zdenka Václavíková, Josef Václavík Sr., Marie Václavíková, JUDr. Jan Konopáč, Jan Konopáč
On a family trip in Prague in 1967.
From left: Jarmila Šrámková, sister Věra Svatá, nephew Zdeněk Svatý, brother-in-law Vladimír Svatý, sister-in-law from Canada Hane Sucharda, nee. Zimmer with a son
On a family trip in Prague in 1967.
From left: Jarmila Šrámková, sister Věra Svatá, nephew Zdeněk Svatý, brother-in-law Vladimír Svatý, sister-in-law from Canada Hane Sucharda, nee. Zimmer with a son
