"We all had a bad time with the rise of the communists. For example, at our school, when we came to lectures, we had a registration form for the Communist Party on the desks in front of us. A communist came and gave us a lecture about how people who were not in the communist party could not study in a socialist state. That simply the Communist Party would not tolerate it. What were we supposed to do? Next to me sat a colleague who was already a communist. And I consulted him, I said, 'Karel, what should I do?' And he said, 'Please, this is just a formality and I'll sign it for you.' So, I signed it."
"There was an alarm, so we hurried to the cellar and there we tried the buns and suddenly it started. We heard bombs falling. We heard everything shaking. I had a seat over the canal, because it was a laundry room, there was a canal, and I felt like I was floating and falling, it was in such waves. There was a kerosene lamp hanging opposite me and it was swaying like that. And we were all waiting for the brickwork to start falling on us, the ceiling or something, but luckily it didn't. Then when it was quiet for a while, dad got brave and came out of the laundry room. And through the closed door, which had a window, so we looked out afterwards and it was interesting. We had just had a green plum blooming in the garden, but it was beautiful, blooming with white flowers. And because as the bombs were falling and there was this swirling dust and it was this yellow dust and the tree just looked like gold."
"The German soldiers, they didn't notice us at all. I thought about it later, when I got older, and I thought it was probably because they just had this pure race in them. They had to keep the race pure, so that's why they didn't notice us young girls. Like we were sitting in the cinema, and there were lots of German soldiers around us, talking to each other, but they didn't pay any attention to us. Which I thought was a good thing, that they didn't bother us. It was worse when the Russians came, it was much worse."
Drahomíra Ťápalová, née Srnová, was born on 9 June 1928 into a middle-class Brno family. Her father Josef Srna came from nearby Rousínov and worked as an accountant and her mother Josefa, née Jonáková, was born in Velká Bystřice near Olomouc. She was initially employed as a secretary and stayed in the household after her marriage. Both parents and their two children, Drahomíra and Lubomír, were Sokols and patriots. It was difficult for them to come to terms with both the German Protectorate and later the communist dictatorship. In 1948 Drahomíra took part in the memorable XIth All-Sokol Meeting. At the beginning of the 1950s, she graduated from the University of Social Sciences and soon after graduation married the Sokol member and doctor František Ťápal. Apart from a three-year stay in Krnov, she lived her whole life in Brno-Královo Pole. In the sixties she was employed in administration and in 1970 she finally got her dream job - for fifteen years she was a regional social curator and in this role she helped released prisoners to integrate into life.
