It was a difficult time. We survived, but the immediate family, 33 people, mother's cousins stayed there. It was luck that we lived elsewhere, in Nesovice. The mayor fought for us, the only mayor in the Protectorate. In doing so, we went to the Gestapo to Brno. Mum had everything handed out to neighbors or hide, if we should come back. We had to go there on Monday, and on Friday we got the message. We already went to the station. About half past twelve went the train, the whole village accompanied us. At the station, it was a municipal house and head called: "Holomková come up here." And there was the mayor. He had dark circles under his eyes, it was able he was very tired. "Holomková don´t cry, you´re not going anywhere. Three days I let myself to dig from door to door in the Gestapo, but I will not send my people to death." Mother fainted. Fortunately, there was a doctor who resuscitated her. And we flew out, there were boys and girls, the whole village. We all shouted, "We're not going anywhere!" Boys wore me on their shoulders. Our mayor was really the only person who saved his people.
However, then came the war. It was terrible when they picked them up tand took them to the concentration camp. We lived in Nesovice. Cousin of my future husband drove to work in the evening, he came to us and told us a message from Svatobořice - that they will take them to the Brno Gestapo in the morning. Whole family. It was thirty-three people. Kyjov, Svatobořice, Sobůlky. Family - cousins, cousins and so on. Jesus Christ, we drove there. My mother's youngest brother, named Čeněk was a machinist, played football in Svatobořice, he was an amazing athlete. He boxed for SK Mistřín and was beautiful and shapely. In the evening we learned about the deportation and we immediately went after them. Only Čeněk from all the brothers had the Gypsy woman – Milenka Danielová from Bučovice. They had a three-years old girl, named Růženka. And I took her with me. I will never forget: from Hodonína to Kyjov went a local. When I went there with Růženka, he just gritted his teeth, Milena wept. That was terrible. A local train dispatcher had become a quarter of an hour to let them to say goodbye. And since that day Růženka never saw her parents, nor did they. She was with us. I brought her with me.
Grandfather had two brothers in Kyjov, they had their own families. And one of them, my mother's brother Eda, was deployed to work in Germany. The only member of the family ... had a married sisters with children, parents, two brothers ... only he remained. And when he arrived, he stopped at our place in Nesovice. He said he was going home that he enjoys. And mother told him, "Eda, don´t look forward. No one from your family stayed alive. They took them all away and razed your house to the ground." And he grabbed his head and beat her towards the wall. Mommy and daddy had to try hard to keep him. He wanted to smash his head. He had two brothers and two sisters with children. Nobody survived.
Emílie Machálková was born in 1926 into a significant Roma family of Holomeks. Her great-grandfather pushed through the right of Roma to live in villages, instead of the previous limit to inhabit only settlements outside the village. Together with her parents and siblings she was saved from deportation to concentration camps - mayor of Nesovice negotiated a derogation on Gestapo in Brno for them. However, thirty-three members of the immediate family were enlisted into the camps, none of them returned. Only three years old niece Růženka was safed. In adulthood, Emílie Machálková, dubbed Elina, established itself as a singer of especially Roma songs. She won several singing competitions. Emília Machálková passed away on July, the 16th, 2017.
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!
