Alžběta Wildová

* 1936

  • "They bombed here, they bombed. We were hiding in a corner like this in bed, on the bed with mom - and now some gentleman came, his name was Macák, he was a semi-doctor. His wife was killed by a splinter in her forehead. He was walking down the street, hoping something would happen to him, that he did not want to live, when his wife was killed. And he walked, walked, and did not get killed. He knocked on our door and I replied: 'Who's knocking?' It was the Macák: 'People go to the cultural centre, people go to the cultural centre.' There were people in the basement, there was already straw, blankets... I said: ' Mom, we are going there too, we are going there, we're going.'' So we took bedsheets on our backs, the two smaller children, Katka and Josef, who were still tiny when I was only ten. So, we went to the cultural centre and slept there until morning. And, we got up in the morning and they said: 'There is peace, there is peace, there is peace.' Suddenly they stopped bombing. Then we went home, everything was grabbed from the roof, we had red roof tiles. We were like, 'What are we doing here?'"

  • "There was no work. Here in Rokytnica they expelled the Germans. There were two factories where weaving was done. I worked in Horní Rokytnica, where I spun and wove. After that I was at home with the children and then I got to Dolní Rokytnice that they needed a weaver, so they arranged a nursery for my older son. Then Marie (Bešinová) came here, because there was no work and she would not work in the fields because she hates the sun. There was no other job in Vráblí. Only later, when we were employed here a long time ago. I came to see her, I was curious about her, how they are doing here, with the children and how it looks here. So I stayed here and got a job here."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Rokytnice nad Jizerou, 06.05.2022

    (audio)
    duration: 01:05:20
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    v Rokytnici nad Jizerou, 19.11.2022

    (audio)
    duration: 40:44
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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My father was dragged to the front and my sister was injured by shrapnel during the war

Alžběta Wildová in the Giant Mountains in the late 1950s
Alžběta Wildová in the Giant Mountains in the late 1950s
photo: archiv pamětníka

Alžběta Wildová, née Betaková, was born on January 25, 1936 in the town of Vráble in southern Slovakia. Parents Štefan and Kateřina had eight children together, six girls and two boys. The family experienced the Second World War intensively. Father was called to Russia with horses and a wagon. During the bombing, the sister of the witness was injured, whose leg was injured by shrapnel. Soviet aircraft raids at the end of the war destroyed the family’s house. Father did not return from the war until a year after it ended, considered by everyone to be dead. At the age of 14, the witness moved to Rokytnice nad Jizerou to join her older sister Maria, married Karel Wild, raised two sons and worked in a textile factory. In 2022, she was a widow and lived in Rokytnica nad Jizerou.