“I was a pupil of the fifth grade. I remember that our class teacher, Mrs. Šímová told us: ‘Children go home and take the shortest way.‘ So, I came home when I found out what was it about because we lived on Prešovská street where the parades of workers from the Škoda factory marched. We were later looking from the window at the march carrying banners of Molotov and Malenkov, who was pro-communist. Later we went to the square to the town hall to have a look, where they were throwing some things out of the windows. After 1 June I know that parents said that repressions against former entrepreneurs against the so-called bourgeoisie were taking place. They did house searches at their homes. Many of them had things on display that they confiscated, for example, in the shop window they had various canned goods, and several watches: basically, ridiculous things. Then they gradually evicted people from Pilsen."
We lived there [in the nationalised house] until June 1953 because after the monetary reform Action B where "B" stood for "bourgeoisie" started in June. We were evicted as many other families were. We were supposed to move to Dolní Podluží near Rumburk. The eviction was conducted in such a way that one day they announced the news of eviction to us, or in other words to our parents and the next morning there was a removal van outside the house. So, family, and closest friends helped my parents to move all night. I cannot imagine now that they had to move out of a four-room flat overnight. I remember that I came home from school and the house has a courtyard gallery and chairs were standing in the courtyard gallery. I asked mum if she was cleaning and she said: ‘No, we are moving.‘“
“I think that the comrades came there. [Father] narrated that they said without any prior warning that the house was passed to the national administration, and then it would be nationalised. They confiscated the shop full of goods, a box office, a house, a car. Everything. Fortunately, we were allowed to keep living there.”
Věra Zajícová, née Bartovská was born on 20 April in Pilsen to a family of a self-employed man who owned a shop that had survived the economic crisis and the Second World War. The family was doing very well until 1948. However, they lost their property after the Communist Putsch. The events of June 1953 meant another misfortune. The Bartovský family was evicted. They were supposed to go to the Orlické Mountains, but her father hastily arranged for them to move to his cottage in Nová Huť near Dýšina. The conditions there were harsh, mainly in winter. However, they later managed to find a flat in Pilsen. Coincidentally, it was opposite their former shop. Věra Zajícová managed to get into an eleven-year school after her return to her hometown. Nevertheless, she could not study at university because of political reasons. She still managed to find a solution and she graduated from the Pedagogical Institute. In 1968, she witnessed the arrival of the occupation troops in Pilsen. Twenty years later, she was standing on Wenceslas Square during the speech of Václav Havel. The confiscated property was returned to her family in 1993 and they still take care of it in 2022.
