"After school, I could do some distance learning and go into teaching, after graduation. But my mother died when I was 19. I graduated in the summer and she died in November. So I was at home. Daddy didn't want to, well, of course, he was 58 and he wouldn't let me leave home. He said, 'They'll put you, if you teach, they'll put you in the borderlands,' because there were few teachers then. And he didn't want me to leave home. He was sad. So I stayed at home. And after that, I wanted to earn some money. So I went to Budějovice, which was the job my cousin got me. Because he was a big communist, so he had some connections there. He got me a job in a textile factory. But I was only there for about eight months."
"I had a classmate who was at the employment office in Strakonice, and he got me a job there. But the Youth Union members... You know what they were, unionists, communist children. Well, and I had such 'friends', in front of whom I said some word, about Gottwald, well, and of course they already knew about it in Písek at the trade unions, that was the Central Council of Trade Unions, and they didn't let me go there [to a new job]."
"Of course, when it [the war] was over, it was a joy. An American tank came to Písek. Now it's all built up, there used to be fields and there was a tank there. And we used to go and watch them [the Americans]. We were happy. And then the tank, I don't know if it was the same one, we had it here in Zahoří, it was standing between Dolní and Horní [Zahoří]. We used to go there and they [the Americans] used to lend us binoculars, we were children, and they used to give us chewing gum. They were such different people, like nicely dressed in uniforms. The Russians, they were such animals. Well, I guess they were from the war, the front line, and they did worse things. The Americans had to pull out after that. There was a demarcation line at Podolsko. And then the Russians came in. And they were terrible, stealing, taking everything. Watches, bicycles, everything."
Jarmila Pelikánová, née Zobalová, was born on 28 February 1929 in Dolní Záhoří near Písek. Her father, Adolf Zobal, worked as a freight cashier on the railway, her mother, Růžena, née Slabá, came from Svatonice and took care of the household and the farm. The family lived in a cottage with a pub attached. From 1935 she attended the municipal school in Záhoří, in 1940 she started to study at the grammar school in Písek. At the end of the war, members of the SS and then Soviet soldiers moved in. After graduating in 1948, she planned to become a teacher, but after her mother died, she stayed at home to help her father. She worked briefly in a textile factory in České Budějovice. Because of her inappropriate statements against Klement Gottwald, she was prevented from starting a new job. She found work at the Jitex company in Písek, where she worked in administration until her retirement. In 1955 she married Václav Pelikán from Horní Záhoří. His father‘s trade history adversely affected his professional career. In 1968, Jarmila Pelikán witnessed the occupation when Soviet tanks drove through the village. During the normalisation period, she had to undergo political interviews, but she never joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In November 1989, she participated in public events and supported socio-political change. She retired in 1991. In 2025 she was living in Záhoří.
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!
