"My mother used to visit my father in prison, in Ilava, when she could. I wasn't allowed there, of course. She took a terrible train to Ilava, to Slovakia, and the journey was probably terrible, with changes. She arrived there, got a few minutes and went back. 'And how often did she go there?' Not much, she would have gone more if they had let her go, but they didn't let her go. She had quite a hard job. She worked for a municipal company as a punishment, making asbestos boxes, nobody knew then that it was harmful to health, the asbestos. Then she got into the dry cleaners, the fumes from the chemicals, it was quite horrible. I used to go and watch her making boxes, it was pulled out of tubs, it was terribly heavy, then I went to the dry cleaners as well."
"They climbed everywhere, they climbed into our closets, behind the beams, they went through the drawers in that room, they threw out the bookcases, the searches were quite horrible. And I had the experience of having a little cupboard in the kitchen, that's where I kept my toys. They liked that, it was near the ground, which they didn't understand why it was near the ground, so that a small child could get in well, right. So they wanted to search the locker and I sat down in front of the locker and I put my hands together and I said, "That's mine. And so they let me, they didn't go in there."
"I was born in 1953 on August 20, and right from the maternity ward my mother went with me, I know this from the story, to that newly made apartment in the villa. However, there was already a pulley on the door and my parents couldn't get in there with me. They stayed with my grandmother for a while and then the communists assigned us housing in Žabokrky near Hronov. I don't remember it, I was a baby, but as my parents said, it was living in the basement, there were even chickens, it was like a chicken coop. They left us there, and communists from Moravia moved into the apartment that my dad had converted, and they were going to convert the factory from a malagel factory into a lemonade factory. And to this day, my grandmother and grandfather lived there and watched it happen. That's how you keep track of what's new in your house. And they watched the new people that came to live there steal the sugar. that was there, it was absolutely unbelievable."
Rita Erbenová was born on 20 August 1953 in Náchod. Her maternal grandparents nationalized the winery, where maltose and medicinal wines were produced, and the villa in Zbečník. Dad‘s parents lost their textile factory in Hronov. Her father, Lubor Linhart, was sentenced to less than two years for so-called unjust enrichment. Mum had to work hard and work with asbestos, which later affected her health. After the Velvet Revolution, her father achieved judicial rehabilitation and the return of his property. Rita Erbenová studied medicine, but after graduation she was not allowed to work in Náchod. She was forbidden to work there because of her father. It was not until the late 1980s that she returned to her native region as a doctor. However, she was not able to move to Náchod until after 1989. During the Velvet Revolution in Prague, she demonstrated on Wenceslas Square, took posters and leaflets home and posted them around the city. In the new era she worked as an immunologist and allergist. After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, she helped Ukrainian refugees with medical aid and financial support. In 2023 she lived in Nachod.
Baptism of great-grandson Alan, great-grandfather Lubor Linhart, Magda and her husband, Rita with Irenka, Filip with Alan, Richard Erben, church in Náchod, 2013
Baptism of great-grandson Alan, great-grandfather Lubor Linhart, Magda and her husband, Rita with Irenka, Filip with Alan, Richard Erben, church in Náchod, 2013
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!
