Marta Zelenková

“Children participated unconsciously much more in the lives and problems of their parents than today. They perceived and experienced life more truly, one could say. One sign of poverty were beggars. They were beggars who came regularly. I remember one university student who used to come to us in 1932 and 1933. Mother sometimes didn't give a five-halter or a ten-halter, but a plate of soup and a piece of bread when they sat on the doorstep. In addition, there were singers, and we children quite liked them.”

"I was a member of the Red Cross and took first aid courses in preparation for the war. But I confess that I was terribly afraid of the war. The first horror fell on me already in 1937, when we went to the jamboree in Holland via Germany. We drove at night. It looked terrible to me, there were swastikas everywhere. When it was Munich, I was terrified of the war outbreak. I was fifteen years old. The fact that there would be no war was a relief for me as a child. But that only lasted until March 1939."

"The president's wife Svobodová was present, when the foundation stone was laid. We also got free plans and within two years the village started functioning. Mothers and aunts were chosen among predominantly religious women, Catholics and Evangelicals. Unfortunately, we know how everything turned out after August 1968. Within two years, our association was liquidated and the second, under-construction village near Brno came under the control of the Ministry of Education and the state administration."

„On September 1, 1939, the Gestapo came to arrest him as an employee of the Legiobank and as a former French legionnaire and social democrat." - "What did they arrest him for?" - "Because he was among the so-called hostages. This happened to scouts, falcons, legionnaires. They were not yet political prisoners. They were also relatively a little better off if they endured the six years of imprisonment. It was worse for people detained during the heydrichades - they were already political prisoners. But these detainees were said to be hostages. There was no personal charge against them.“

"I got involved when the reorganization of children's homes began thanks to progressive pediatricians and child psychologists such as associate professor Dunovský, professor Matějček, Langmeier and a number of directors of children's homes who realized that the way the institutions were run was not good. There was an effort to convert it to a system of family groups. At the same time, there was an effort to establish SOS children's villages here, following the example of Austria. This was achieved thanks to enthusiasm in the spring of 1968. The Ministry of the Interior authorized the association of SOS children's villages. We had great support from radio and television. There was a wave of unprecedented charity and we raised a lot of money. So the SOS children's village began to be built; the first one was created in Dubí near Karlovy Vary."