"My sister was alone with the child in Prague. That's why she always wanted me to go to her place to sleep. That's where we had the worst time. In 1945, the SS were everywhere on that hilltop, where the memorial in Žižkov is now, and they were shooting down on Prague from that hilltop. You could see it even in the kitchen, with the hot bullets flying. They were shooting at the houses. My sister and I preferred to sleep on the kitchen floor because the other rooms faced the street, so we were afraid to sleep there. It was terrible. Nobody can imagine."
"Everyone knew publicly that I went to church, that I was Catholic. I didn't mind. I told myself that I would either stay there (at the radio station) or I would be fired. I was such a drag. Whoever did and pulled a show this big, even if you were religious, you didn't get fired. I found out about Charter 77, but I didn't sign anything. I figured there was no point, that I could be fired from radio for that. And then who would do the shows. I tried to stay on for the sake of the programmes, to keep them up to scratch. When I retired, they gave me a nice report card. I didn't have any problems. I'm kind of, as they say, a pulling ox."
Jindřiška Grecová, née Oldřichová, was born on January 10, 1923 in Prague, into a family with a tradition in stone masonry. She had a happy childhood during the First Republic. Her later life was affected by the Nazi occupation, accompanied by the constant fear of bombing. During the Prague Uprising in 1945 she built barricades. After the war, she devoted herself to work in Charity, where she helped survivors of concentration camps. In 1946 she entered university, where she studied social work. The February coup changed everything. The Communists expelled everyone who was not a member of the Communist Party. She married in 1951 and the couple had five children. However, the prematurely born twins died. In the 1960s, she began working as a volunteer for the Czechoslovak Radio Children‘s Choir. After the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops, she saw the radio building devastated. She escaped the radio party purges and later joined the children‘s broadcasting department, where she helped prepare the programme Good Evening, Children. For the next decade, family was her priority, and after retirement, especially her grandchildren. She followed the events of November 1989. In 2023, Jindřiška Grecová celebrated her 100th birthday. The most important value for her was always faith and helping her neighbours. She died on January 4, 2025.
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!
