Ludmila Stáňová

* 1946

  • "The interesting thing was that the year I was here - sixty-eight and sixty-nine - I was preparing to leave. At that time, I hadn't thought of the philosophy that you can live in the present moment, so to speak, and you can truly experience what you're experiencing. People are usually in their heads and thinking about something, but I was walking around Prague, and I was imprinting all the beauties of the present moment to my head that I can still recall, like the stones on Charles Bridge. So, I was preparing myself for it... I already had some friends in England, I was willing to go through that. I didn't go into it thinking it would take 25 years. Everybody predicted it, but I'm such a naive optimist that I thought I'd be here in a year or two. We were in written contact with friends, and my friends regretted losing me. When I think about it, where did I get the nerve to just decide at twenty-three to live in another country? I knew that people emigrated in '48. I knew it happened, and I knew it was an option. So I did it completely consciously."

  • "I wasn't in Pioneer until sixth grade, I think, when it became untenable. I was an A student, and the teacher who liked me, who was a big communist, told me, 'You're not going to get anywhere!' So in sixth grade, my mom said what can [be done]. My sister and I used to play Pioneers at home. It bothered us terribly that we weren't Pioneers. Mommy, when she wasn't home - we would tie our scarves and play Pioneers. That's how ridiculous it was."

  • "At that time, before my mother got a job as a typist in Letňany through a friend, she worked at home. She was helped by various people and worked for a cooperative. She bought a loom and wove cloth. I know she bought fabric and lost a lot of money on it. Daddy was young when he died, so he had no pension, and he had some securities, but those were a piece of paper from day to day. They lost everything they had. Mom cried a lot about how poor we were, and I tried to console her. I always said to her, 'We could be worse off.' Luckily, my grandfather collected antiques, and we had an apartment full of things to sell."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Praha, 18.04.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 02:08:09
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
  • 2

    Praha, 21.06.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 01:46:36
    media recorded in project Stories of the 20th Century TV
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I was not Hus, who would let himself be burned. But Comenius, and so I emigrated

Ludmila Stáňová in her graduation year, 1964
Ludmila Stáňová in her graduation year, 1964
photo: witness archive

Ludmila Stáňová, née Kroužilková, was born on 17 May 1946 in Prague, the first-born daughter of Karel and Milena Kroužilková. Her father came from a mixed Christian-Jewish family and was transferred to the Klettendorf labour camp in Poland in 1944. He died suddenly of a stroke in September 1950, leaving behind his wife and two minor daughters. In 1964, the witness graduated from the Secondary School of Electrical Engineering and joined the VAKUS computer technology company. From 1967, she worked as an au pair in Great Britain and returned to Czechoslovakia after a year. In July 1969, she emigrated to Great Britain, receiving help from the Velehrad Compatriot Organisation. Gradually, she found a place to live and a job and married Antonín Stáně. She was convicted of illegally leaving the Czechoslovak state border in her absence and lost her Czechoslovak citizenship. She did not come back to Czechoslovakia until the Autumn of 1989. Since 2008, she has been active in the Velehrad Compatriot Organization. She was still living in the UK at the time of filming in spring 2023.