Eugenie Točíková

* 1929

  • "Imagine there was a terrible storm, and I was very afraid. It was such a crazy storm that I ran to my parents’ bedroom. You know, I was an only child, but not spoiled. My mom told me, 'Come and lie down with us.' That shocked me because I had a couch there. I noticed that mom was acting strange, and I asked her what happened. 'Are you scared too?' She said to me, 'No, Evženka, I have to tell you something terrible. I can't take it anymore, I've known it since six o'clock. Vlastík is in prison!' That was a disaster. I thought I was going to have a complete breakdown. My parents were shattered. In the morning, my mother and I packed up and went to Jihlava. I arrived in Jihlava, and even though I hated the stetsec [State Security] nest in Hluboká Street in Jihlava, I immediately went to State Security while my mother was in church. I rang the bell and said my name. They let me in through the two doors and there sat the investigator. They asked me why I came there. I said I came because they locked up my fiance and that I can't imagine why, and that I'm supposed to be getting married. I was absolutely mad and told them he didn't do anything. They told me, 'You know what, he’s in prison and don't expect him coming back!'"

  • "I was seeing his parents all the time, they loved me, and I loved them. I would go to Dačice for one week and Brno for the next week. I went on a vacation with them as well. They truly wanted me to wait for him to get back, and I wanted it too. After five years, however, I was desperate because I wanted to have children and a family. But everything was terribly distant. Then when I went to visit him in the prison, Vlastík wrote to me: 'Please be nice and find someone else because I'm not coming back. I thought I would come back soon, but I won't.' I wanted to marry him while he was still in prison. He secretly answered me by writing on a piece of toilet paper. Someone, I don't know, he was a fake person who wanted me to send him packages, and it wasn't true, brought it to me. He brought it to me saying that my fiance is sending it, so I should think about it, he doesn't want to ruin my life. That was the moment when I decided to become independent."

  • "Mommy was so quick-witted that she took two sheets and pulled his stomach, and I saw that pool of blood. And I was just under fifteen years old. The doctor came and said he had to go to the hospital, but there was no hospital in Dačice. They put him in the ambulance and drove all the way to Počátky, which is far. And dad was in the operating room for four and a half hours - mom went with them. The Russians came to Dačice during the morning, and I was locked in that house. There was blood and sheets in the bathtub. So I opened the door, and everyone was shouting: 'The Russians are here! Come and welcome them!'"

  • “He desperately begged me to arrange for him to be transferred to Jáchymov. Can you imagine how bad it must have been for him in Bory if he wanted to be moved to Jáchymov instead!? Of course, the warden was listening, and he warned us that if we did not stop it he would terminate the visit, because we were only allowed fifteen minutes, anyway, and dad told me that he needed a toothpaste. I was not allowed to give him a toothpaste, of course... He suffered from an inflammation of periosteum. It hurt him so badly, and I don’t know if they treated him for that at all… I had to leave after fifteen minutes, and from that moment I started crying and I kept crying until I arrived to Dačice.”

  • “Suddenly somebody came to tell us that dad was lying there in blood… I don’t know if there were any fast ambulance cars at that time, and so we just got hold of one taxi driver from the village who went there to pick him up. He took him to the nearest hospital in Počátky, where they told us that he was in an infaust state and that he would probably not survive. He had two penetration wounds: one through his stomach and one through his thigh. The Russians were already in Dačice and people were celebrating… Everybody was merry and I was at home crying, because we had the bathtub full of bloodied bed sheets and all this... I was terrified that at any moment – there were no mobile phones at that time – that dad would simply be no more. So that was how my mom and I celebrated the liberation.”

  • “We have already printed the wedding announcements and we had two banns in the church. I was in Dačice at that time, there was a big storm and I was terribly scared. I am scared of storms and so I went to the bedroom of my mum and dad. Mom’s behaviour was really strange and she kept telling me: 'Don't worry, don't be afraid.' She was crying all the time and I asked her: 'What’s wrong?' She replied: 'Evženka, I must tell you something. They arrested Vlastík yesterday in the afternoon.' I thought I would have a stroke at that exact moment.”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Jihlava, 12.03.2015

    (audio)
    duration: 48:36
    media recorded in project The Stories of Our Neigbours
  • 2

    Jihlava, 28.05.2021

    (audio)
    duration: 01:36:16
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
  • 3

    Jihlava, 02.06.2021

    (audio)
    duration: 01:14:06
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
  • 4

    Jihlava, 07.04.2022

    (audio)
    duration: 01:58:41
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

Everyone rejoiced while I was crying at home. That’s how my mother and I celebrated the liberation

Eugenie Točíková, 1948
Eugenie Točíková, 1948
photo: witness archive

 Eugenie Točíková was born in 1929 in Dolní Němčice near Dačice. During the war, she spent one year doing forced labour in a factory. Her father suffered a shot penetration wound after being shot by Germans at the end of the war while the Red Army was approaching Dačice. Eugenie moved to Jihlava, where she attended a vocational school focused on women’s professions. Then she continued her studies at an advanced social-nursing school. After graduating in 1949, she was supposed to marry Vlastimil Kučera, but her fiancé was arrested ten days before the wedding. He was sentenced to eighteen years of imprisonment in a staged trial: at first, he was imprisoned in Plzeň-Bory and later in Jáchymov. Eugenie was able to visit Vlastimil no more than twice a year, and after five years, she eventually married another man. She worked in the accounting department of the Chemodroga company and then in the retail of consumer goods: due to her unfavourable personal profile, she could not find a job in her profession. Vlastimil Kučera was released after thirteen and a half years in an amnesty in 1962.