"And they made repeated raids in Řepčice and then there was much pressure because they wanted to expropriate it, which was actually impossible. So then they created a project that they were going to build a turning point there because a bus which went through there twice a day was to turn around there. So it was an absolutely absurd situation. They drew up a project for that and on the basis of that the house was expropriated. Because before, when they used to do the raids, they did it in such a way that, for example, they slipped marijuana into the house during the search and the next day they raided it again. And they found it, the marijuana, and that was the reason for interrogations, arrests. But they still couldn't remove the house. And it wasn't until this action, when they were going to build a turning point there, that they actually expropriated it. And they [people in the house] had to move out, they withdrew, and they were left with just a hall, which was another house, and the whole country pub, which was a huge building - a historic, beautiful building - so it was really razed to the ground. The diggers came in and actually flattened it."
"He [Major Málek] began to come at times when my husband was not at home. So I was alone with the children, and I let him in a few times at first because I wasn´t quite sure what I could dare. And over time, I developed a certain strategy of talking to him that I actually answered with a question. When he asked me, I would answer with a question or I would say I was not going to comment or that I didn't know. And it was always very challenging because the way he led the conversation, all I had to do was to nod my head or somehow indicate that I actually knew what he was talking about or that I knew the people he was naming. Or usually he used to actually name some people and then say, 'Well, I've forgotten the name now, can you remind me? He was here the last time.' That is, the conversation was so informal, where he draws you in, that you actually nod suddenly and identify the person or admit that the person was there. So it was very demanding and I found afterwards, as time went on, that I was physically sick every time he had left. I got over it, but I had a distinct feeling of such physical disgust, nausea."
"And the night before, on the 20th, we went to a local baroque church, and because the older [friend] had permission from the local pastor to go there to practise the organ, there could be heard a beautiful organ playing over the gate in the evening. And he also sang. And we were finishing there at ten o'clock at night, and we were sitting in those pews, the young people, and he was playing Ave Maria on the organ. It was echoing through that dark church, and that was the end of it, and we locked it up with a big key, gave it back to the pastor, and went home. And actually after midnight, sometime at two o'clock in the morning, we were awakened by Mr. Štefan, whom we used to go to, that the occupation troops in Šumperk had crossed... were already entering the outskirts of Šumperk. So it was just an awful situation, where we had the radio on all that night... we were crying, we were scared, we didn't know what was going on."
Zora Bártová was born on 14 November 1951 in Slovakia, where her father Jan Mysliveček worked as a pneumologist and phthisiologist [ i.e. tuberculosis specialist]. In 1953, the family returned to Prague with their two children and four years later they moved to the premises of the Lung Disease and Tuberculosis Hospital in Kostelec nad Černými lesy. In Kostelec, Zora attended primary school; her mother, Magdalena Myslivečková, née Suhradová, worked there as a teacher. Her parents joined the Communist Party after the war, but their membership ended with them being expelled in 1968, when they disagreed with the entry of Warsaw Pact troops. Her father, who was the senior doctor and director of the hospital at the time, was gradually removed from both posts and transferred to Poděbrady in 1971. Eventually the hospital ended up in the hands of the Soviet occupation army. Zora Bártová graduated from medical faculty and married Zdeněk Bárta, an evangelical pastor and later a signatory of Charter 77. Together with their children they lived in the parish house in Horní Řepčice, where many meetings of like-minded friends were held. All this took place under the constant surveillance of the State Security. The witness worked as a district general practitioner, and after the Velvet Revolution she opened a private medical practice focusing on psychosomatics, and at the same time she also practiced psychotherapy. At the beginning of the 1990s, she participated in the establishment of the Care Centre at the Diakonia of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren in Litoměřice, of which she was a professional guarantor. Since 2003 she has been living and working in Prague.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
