"My older brother trained as a waiter and could not get a place here, so he volunteered for the war. Then he came back and a restaurateur in Vyšné Hágy lent him, at the bus stop, that there was a restaurant and that he could stay there. And Masaryk's sanatorium was built there, but then they renamed it the Medical Institute. So he was in the Vyšné Hágy and I went to see him for the winter. So I helped serving there. I skied, Marťa bought me skis. There were those jumping competitions at Štrbské pleso, Jarolink's bridge was there, so I never saw it. There was no cinema here, I never saw it before. I stood among the people and suddenly I saw them flying - it was horrible. At that time, he was the winner and jumped about seventy-three meters at most. But then in June [1939]: 'Czechs out!' "
"Well, we got ready, we had a cellar at home. So we prepared food, duvets for the cellar. The last retreating Germans came to us. They asked us where we intended to be, and the German explained to us that we were in danger there, we were by the stream, the bridge was undermined, so we moved here. And well, maybe they saved our lives. Because as they were firing, they hit us through the kitchen window, the floor was broken and the door and all. And then when it was all over, Dad said: 'I'm going to have to go and take care of her.' We had a mare there and we raised a foal from her, and she was already harnessed. And he came to the barn, and the barn was empty. I've never seen him cry in his life, when he came in, and he said to me, 'Don't even go there.' Well, I didn't go there, but in the end I did go. In the yard of such a mess I had in the kitchen in the cupboard, pots and mugs, everything was in the yard on such necks and stolen flannel for those diapers, sheets, and that was all gone. Some of my clothes and some of my husband's. He didn't have much of it. He had newer clothes there, so they were gone, too. I had a beautiful watch there in my mug, it was gone too."
"It was horrible, we were very sorry for them. Here used to be Emil Steiner, they used to be one house away from ours. He had a wife and three children, and the wife died still young. And her sister Lilinka used to live with him, and she stayed through the children. So they lived with those kids. She used to come to discussion and so on. The kids were at our wedding. They had a good reputation here. Then Liduška was born to us and Lilinka was no longer allowed to go anywhere. She always looked to see if there was one coming and ran away, at certain time I brought her to ours to visit. We weren't allowed to meet up, as it was dangerous. And suddenly they disappeared at night… On the door, they had the door to the store there, so it was written there: 'Goodbye, all the good people, goodbye our dear home.' It was written in chalk, child, as it went to school - "But then someone immediately wiped it off."
Ludmila Charvátová was born on May 31, 1919 to the Konečnýs in Krumvíř in the Břeclav region. She grew up in the environment of the Sokol physical education unit, where she went to practice. He fondly remembers the time under the rule of the president Masaryk. As a child, she attended his welcoming in Krumlov in 1924. Ludmila apprenticed as seamstress, but worked at home in the farm. At the age of eighteen, she passed the Sokol training exams at Tyrš House in Prague. She spent the winter of 1938 in Vyšné Hágy, Slovakia, where her brother worked as a waiter and she helped him in a restaurant near the emerging Masaryk Sanatorium. In the spring of 1939, the Czechs had to leave Slovakia and Ludmila returned home; in the autumn she married Josef Charvát. Ludmila has significant events associated with the birth of three children. In 1942 there was the deportation of her Jewish friends, in 1945 transition of the front and plundering home at the end of World War II, and in 1948 Sokol meeting in Prague. In 1955, under pressure, she and her husband joined the united agricultural cooperative, where Ludmila worked until her retirement in 1973. She painted ornaments on porcelain and decorated Easter eggs. She excelled in this activity and became the Master of Folk Art.
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!
