Zdenka Pilátová

* 1929

Svědci lokálních událostí spojených s druhou světovou válkou, Svědci lokálních událostí z éry komunismu
Osvobozování Československa, Německé obsazování ČSR, Pražské jaro, Invaze vojsk Varšavské smlouvy, Sametová revoluce v Československu
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    I've stood in queue for everything

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    délka: 01:30
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    "Well, when I got married, there was nothing available, it was terrible. Don’t even talk to me about forty-eight, I never want that to happen again. No way, absolutely not! No communists. [Laughs] That’s just how it is, what can I do? I have no fond memories of them. Even though my family wasn’t persecuted—I can’t say that—we weren’t... But that beginning, the rationing, the queues, quarter of a liter of milk on ration cards for a pregnant woman—I was expecting a baby back then—when I think about it… No, no, never again. No, no, no, I don’t want it. [Laughs] Sorry, but no communists. No. They didn’t personally harm me, I can’t say that, but the overall situation—it was awful. I stood in queue for everything, even for a piece of gristly meat. We’d go to the butcher at five in the morning just to get some sweaty scrap of meat. When I remember that—oh God, those were the times. Thank God that now... well, let them argue and fight, whatever, it’s still good compared to that. Never again, never! Now I got myself all worked up. [Laughs]"

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    The soldiers robbed us and set fire to the cellars

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    délka: 01:47
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    "The biggest bombing we have experienced was here. It was a heavy air raid, the factories around Brno were hit. We gathered one day after the bombing - our whole house, we lived in Křenová street - those parties, we were all together. We packed up to take a trip, and we went out to Maloměřice. And there was this tunnel. I don't know if it was under construction, or if there was a train that went there, I don't remember. But we went out to take a walk, and we couldn't go back because the front and the artillery started, so we had to stay there. We stayed in that tunnel and we survived the arrival of the Red Army. So it was a force. Then, when the Russians came through that tunnel, when we knew it was quiet, we slowly went back home. And there we found out that we were... that we were... not flooded, robbed by those soldiers. Come on, it was the soldiers, of course. And they set fire to our cellars, so what we had hidden there, we lost everything. So we only had what we were wearing."

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    The bombing was a terrible noise

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    "We were running away - we were living in Křenová street, and when they started announcing on the radio in German that Flugzeuge in Richtung Sant Pelten, also, we all ran, took our suitcases and went to the cellar. And I've seen bombing and I don't wish it for anybody. It's terrible, terrible! It was such a racket, it's been so many years - I don't know how many, I can't count - but so many years and no, I can't forget. And I can still see those terrible planes, those terrible machines flying and dropping bombs. Oh my God, no, no... And for a long time, when the front was over and we were already liberated, when the planes flew, I crouched down and kept waiting to see what would fall. That was... no, I don't ever want to see that again. Terrible."

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    Brno, 05.05.2023

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    délka: 32:22
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    Brno, 19.05.2023

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    délka: 40:32
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I can still see those horrible machines flying and planting bombs

Zdenka Pilátová in May 2023
Zdenka Pilátová in May 2023
zdroj: archive of a witness
zdroj: archive of a witness
Stáhnout obrázek

Zdenka Pilátová was born as Ševčíková on 16 June 1929 in Bratislava. There she started going to primary school. In 1938 she had to leave Slovakia with her father Josef for Czech because of the situation in Slovakia. Her mother Terezie died shortly before that. Zdenka first stayed with her aunt in Mělník for about a year, where she also experienced March 15, 1939. Then she returned to her father, who had remarried and settled with his new wife Emilia in Brno. She spent most of the Second World War there, experiencing the bombing of the city in 1944 and 1945. In the summer of 1945, she started an apprenticeship with the Pazdírek company and trained as a bookseller - musician. In 1948 she married a fellow bookseller for the first time, and had two children - a son Zdeněk in 1949 and a daughter Helena in 1953. In the early 1960s, she started working in a bookshop and remained there until her retirement. Shortly after 21 August 1968, she and her colleagues collected signatures against the entry of Warsaw Pact troops. After the Velvet Revolution, already a pensioner, she earned extra money as a cleaner. In 2023 she lived in Brno.

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