Věra Uhrovičová

“We were there for a year, and then the thirty-eight came and we had to... Dad was on the borders and Mum didn’t know what to do. All the finance blokes made sure to move out of Břeclav because it was dangerous. So she then set off here to Mikulčice. Well, and she looked to hire a carter to get us here because she didn’t know where to move to. Then she found a flat here, so we stayed. [Q: So you were among those who fled Břeclav to escape the Germans...] Yes, I remember that all right.”

“I was expecting at the time. The director came along and said: ‘Do your business in the morning, we don’t know what’ll happen, they might come back [the soldiers], so you might have to be closed away.’ So we went there, but I could feel I was surely going into labour. Back then we didn’t go to the maternity ward, we had one old granny here, so we called for her and she said: ‘Oh, that’s not quite coming yet,’ so I went down into the cellar to sleep. But then it was four in the morning and I felt it was probably coming. So we went back up into the house, and the granny, the midwife, said: ‘If you need me, I’ll be so and so...’ She had one other pregnant mum here, ‘so I’ll be with her.’ So my husband set off there, but she wasn’t to be found. So he ran all over the village looking for her, and then she... she had simply gone to hide in a cellar somewhere as well, so we didn’t know about her. And it was my time; we had one aunt here who also helped with the births, and she kind of knew about it, so she came by. I had a medical book ready, and I advised them what they should do. Well, and when the granny came along, the baby was already born.”