"I refused to approve the invasion at all costs even though the director winked at me and said, 'You have three children, woman.' I said, 'Yes, but I couldn't look them in the eye. I just couldn't approve entry. Aggression is aggression, occupation is occupation.' He said, 'You'll get what you wanted.' So I was a proofreader for fifteen years instead of a professional editor."
"The radio told us to explain it to the boys and so on, so I tried. I had completed a Russian grammar school, so I spoke fluent Russian, which kind of caught them by surprise, but then all of a sudden the tank commander ordered, 'Ready your weapon!' and there were eight rifles pointed at me."
"In my case, it was directed at my parents. My parents brushed it off by saying, why don't they do it to others. I didn't know then, but I know now. Their parents weren't communists, let alone going around as a canvasser couple. That was the reason. But I didn't know then, so when I couldn't answer my parents why the kids didn't do it to other Jewish kids, they quit caring about it. And the little kids went on doing it like a pack when they saw there was no threat to them. So, for example, when I was walking home from school, the little kids would run on the opposite side of the road and shout at me: 'Jew, you're going to turn to shit!' It didn't bother me so much that they were shouting as that nobody ever told them to stop. I said, 'If they hurt a dog, somebody would speak up, but if they hurt a child?' And I was told, 'Well, people don't take it that way.' Simply put, my parents were dyed-in-the-wool communists, pre-war members, and walked around as a communist canvasser couple."
Alena Flohrová, née Vodičková, was born in London on 9 February 1942 to Jewish parents. Her mother, Hana Lewitová, fled to England with her family before the outbreak of the war, while her father, Adolf Vodička, was deported there as a member of the International Brigades following the defeat of France. When their daughter was born, they sent her away for safety. As a result, little Alena grew up without her parents during the early years of her life and only began to learn Czech after her return to Czechoslovakia in 1945. Nothing good awaited her there. Hana and Adolf Vodičkas were members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and enthusiastic communists but were sidelined post-1949 as part of the anti-Jewish purges in the party. It affected their daughter too. Her classmates and children in the street verbally and physically attacked her for her parents‘ sake, and even played a game of court trial one day and sentenced her to death by hanging. Alena Flohrova studied horticulture and went on to work as a professional editor at the State Agricultural Publishing House until 1969, when she refused to approve the invasion of Soviet troops and lost her job. However, she never regretted it and never changed her mind. She was living in Prague in 2023.
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!
