Daniela Ženatá

* 1957

  • "They brought him to us, it was a quick one, a kind of ambush. Daniel managed to tell me at the last minute. I just told him yes. I didn't think to worry about the kids. Lexa looked terrible. He'd been hanging around for a few days. We had this little closet, we cleaned it out, put a bed in it, a locker. He was terrified. He was screaming in his sleep. He was 19. When we gave him a piece of chocolate, he ran to the basement and ate it. He was so damaged. Now he was speaking Russian into it, so we scraped the Russian out."

  • "My husband had it so decent under the Communists, they dragged him around for interrogations, but I guess they found out that they couldn't get much out of him, that he wasn't the right person to get anything out of, so they left him alone. There was an entire structure of communists and secret police who kept an eye on the priests—church secretaries at district and regional levels who pressured them. Anyone who stood out too much was slapped down, while those who focused quietly on their work were often left alone. Dan was a moderate middle ground. Back then, it was terrible—everything had to be written up and submitted to the secretary for approval, including who you wanted to invite to speak and so on. The parish priests had to learn to zigzag to be the bearers of some culture, education, the Word of God, so that they could invite those people in their congregation to some good event. There were no copy machines. There were cyclostyles. You had to number the bellows, keep records, and you had to go to the secretary with each bellows for approval. So any invitation that looked ugly, because there were no graphics, still had to be approved by the secretary."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Věstínek, 10.07.2024

    (audio)
    duration: 32:01
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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With faith, man is freer

Daniela Married in 1965
Daniela Married in 1965
photo: witness

Daniela Ženatá was born on 20th February 1957 to Eva and Josef Prudký. The family was forced by the communist regime in the 1950s to join a unified agricultural cooperative (JZD), as a result of which her grandmother committed suicide. After studying at the University of Chemical Technology in Prague, she married Daniel Ženatý, with whom she raised four children. In November 1989, she and her husband took part in a demonstration at Letná. After the Revolution, they hid together in the parsonage in Nové Město na Moravě a Soviet deserter, Alexey Ženatý, who after the Soviet army’s deportation obtained Czech citizenship and took the family surname Ženatý in gratitude. After 1989 she taught at primary and secondary schools. She then became editor-in-chief of the evangelical magazine Český bratr. In 2024, she lived with her husband, Daniel Ženaty, synod elder emeritus of the Evangelical Church, in Věstínek in the Highlands.