Marie Nováková

* 1934

  • "When the German population was evicted, there were villages everywhere in the border area, not yet Lipno, where it was necessary to harvest after the removal. Workers from big cities, for example from Prague and so on, used to come there to work. In 1946, we already got those temporary jobs there. They sowed mostly flax. And then we used to go on trucks in the morning, we had to dress properly, some gloves. We were picking flax. Or we were picking potatoes. The flax, that was worse, because the fields were overgrown with thistles, it wasn't plowed, it was plowed a little bit, it was sown, and it stung terribly, and it hurt your hands. So we had... my parents got me leather gloves. We usually ate one hot meal. It was in some farmhouse, some lady had a big pot of soup. I remember one time we got soup with hail or flakes in it, and now we were looking at it and they had worms swimming in there besides the hail. Well, because God knows where those hailstones were, they were left in some pantry somewhere after those Germans. So I know we were very hungry. We had two pieces of bread stuck together from home, because we couldn't buy something for a big snack. After the war, there was still food... even cloth, the leaves were called scarves. So we lived quite very poorly."

  • "It stuck in my mind. In the afternoon there was a shower, we sat down at the Rose Hotel and had tea. On the left, on the opposite side of a table, sat American soldiers. And when they brought us tea, we paid for it right away and started drinking it. They looked at us several times and then one of them stood up and gave us sugar. That was still, the food was on ration cards just like it was during the war, so you had to be economical with all the food."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Český Krumlov, 03.06.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 01:48:07
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

She enjoyed her freedom in retirement

Marie Nováková.
Marie Nováková.
zdroj: Memory of Nations

Marie Nováková was born on 14 August 1934 in České Budějovice. After the war, her family moved to Český Krumlov, where Marie‘s father worked in an insurance company. It was there that she began to attend grammar school. She graduated in 1952, but did not receive a recommendation for university. Her brother Petr was not allowed to graduate at all. She graduated from the Tyrš Institute of Physical Education. In 1955 she took part in the training for the first Spartakiada. Later, she was able to study at the Faculty of Education, a combination of Czech and physical education. For some time she taught at a placement in Teplice in North Bohemia and then worked in Český Krumlov. She retired in 1989.