Eva Heliová

* 1938

  • "In Ivančice, Alfons Mucha went there. I have pictures too. He used to go to their garden, and when I was born in 1938, he stroked me and died in Prague in 1939. Those are the memories. Dad, before they arrested him, he and Alfons were up here on the hill, and when they went down that hill, dad was taking pictures of him. I still have his photo. How he went down that hill here. Those are the memories.”

  • "They arrested him at the law faculty and dragged them through Brno. Grandma and grandpa lived in Brno, we were with them and we probably knew where they were going, so we went to see. My brother was two years old, I was four. We were standing by that road and mom said to my little brother, 'You're going to pee here now, you're going to pee,' so we could see them go. And they went and I recognized my father. I called him. And I got... Here I have one scar, I got it on my head, they broke my nose and then they left."

  • "My mom could sent him a small package. And here they write that during the inspection of the package it was discovered - they, the Germans, wrote - that cigarettes were hidden in the buns. For this reason, for fourteen days, that is from the February 7 to February 21, 1944, they prohibit the sending of all food and cigarettes."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Ivančice, 31.05.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:32:27
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

It could be heard all over Hrotovice. When I can‘t sleep, it comes back to me

Eva Heliová in 1943
Eva Heliová in 1943
zdroj: archive of the witness

Eva Heliová, née Studená, was born on June 21, 1938 in Bohemia in the Vyškov region. She grew up in Hrotovice until 1945. Her mother Karla worked as a teacher and her father Lubomír lectured at the Faculty of Law in Brno. Jaroslav Studený the uncle from the father´s side served in the ranks of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) during the war. Her father Lubomír, who collaborated with the resistance group Urbanek-Papula, also joined the fight against Nazism. In April 1943, the father was arrested by members of the Gestapo and imprisoned until the end of the war – in Brno, in the Svatobořice internment camp and in Jihlava. He returned home on May 3, 1945. Five days later, on May 8, her father became a victim of the so-called Hrotovice tragedy, when, due to poor communication, Red Army bombers dropped three bombs on the civilian residents of Hrotovice, who were gathering in the square to welcome the liberators. After the tragic event, Eva and her mother moved to Ivančice. Eva dedicated her professional life to teaching children in kindergartens in Brno. She also worked as the director of the kindergarten in Ivančice for fifteen years. In 2022, Eva Heliová lived in Ivančice and took part in commemorative events every year on the occasion of the anniversary of the Hrotovice tragedy.