Hana Vidímová
* 1928 †︎ 2024
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“And Dad, too — it all had to be just right. He gave me a hard time as a girl and thanks for it because it was a gift. My mother chased me around the kitchen, and she didn't do that well because she was a great cook. She was from a family with a lot of children, so grandpa Mrazek pushed them in various ways. Mum got to the mill and learned a lot there. She always said it was her university. She learned everything there. How to cook and raise children. And I used to ran away to the Sokol movement. I did my job around the house. Dad didn't let me go until I swept the yard. But you know what, these are the basics. The basics that I required from my wards, pupils. Work, honesty and helping each other.”
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“This is something that I have strongly coded. We walked across the Wenceslas Square and followed to the Old Town Square... it was still the Gottwald era. He was sitting on the grandstand with his... There was a grandstand - and the president wanted to beckon the crowd. And our colleague, a member of Sokol, said: 'Look at the right!' Not at the head of the state, but look aside from him. Then he destroyed the Sokol movement at once. He just could not stand it.”
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“That was no fun. At the end of the war, prisoners were passing through Opatovice. It was a rural village. It was said that they were terribly poor people and whether they were Russians, Americans, they were prisoners, poor men dragging their legs. They slept in the barns. Opatovice gathered to make a big collection, and when they slept over, everyone got soup in the morning. In this respect Opatovice was an amazing place. They passed from Pardubice to the region of Hradec Králové. They were thousands of people in the crowds. I am the chronicler of Opatovice and I noticed this as it was important.”
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Full recordings
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Praha ED, 09.10.2019
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My father and training in Sokol established the foundations for my life
Hana Vidímová, née Půlpánová, was born on July 3, 1928 in Hradec Králové. She grew up in Opatovice nad Labem, where she lived during the World War II. Her father, Václav Půlpán, was a legionnaire retired from the First World War and worked in tram and rail transport. Hana attended the grammar school in Pardubice during the war and recalls the resistance in the Pardubice region as well as the end of the war in her native Opatovice. In 1947 she graduated from a family school. She was an active member of Sokol movement and in 1948 participated in XI. Sokol gathering. She graduated from the nursing school in Hořice, then completed a two-month course at Charles University in Prague for assisting teachers and started wokring in a nursery school. Later she graduated from the Faculty of Physical Education. She taught physical education and was an instructor in a physical education organization. She got married in Prague, but she had a hard time getting used to the city and all her life kept coming back to Opatovice. After November 1989, she became a member of the restored Sokol in Prague - Vinohrady and participated in all subsequent Sokol meetings. At the time of the interview, at the age of 91, she was still an active Sokol member. Hana Vidímová passed away on March, the 17th, 2024.
