"Zápotocky said at the time that there would be no currency reform. And we listened to the news with my mother. I still remember how the table was in the kitchen, everything... Well, there was news that there was a currency reform. It was a shock, because from the president, if one day he says this and the next day or the same day something else ... Well, it was like that, and I know that my mother started crying and said: 'Jarushka, now we really don't have anything at all.' And so we started from scratch, saving, saving, and saving again to have something. It looks good like this, it was a little worse, but we had to manage somehow. And there was no money. Nowadays, people complain that they don't have money, but you can buy many things. Then it's more like there's a big offer, and they don't have the money. So just don't buy it. So that's that."
"They pressured people to renounce their relatives in America. That they disagree with it because they are capitalists, and so forth. Or it came home, that letter [from the Foreign Ministry], my mother read it, and I know she thought to herself... She asked my grandfather what about it and her husband, and grandfather always, what was about his side, they decided themselves. And what was about mother's side they decided alone or consulted sometimes. And my father says: 'Růženka, do what you want.' So my mother, a strong woman, went to the ministry and said: 'I'll tell them there.' And my grandmother too, when she started talking, she told them. Because she said: 'I told them I would not disown anyone. Because they are honest people, they have moved out. They have received permits, they are working, and they are taking care of their families, so I will not disown such people. And they didn't steal anything.' So in this manner, my grandmother probably handled it there. But nothing happened to us, never any harm."
Jaroslava Preislerová was born on 24 July 1941 in Prague. Her mother, Růžena, was born with her siblings in America, from where, under troublesome circumstances, they returned to their parents‘ homeland before the outbreak of the First World War. They then lived in Vlachovo Březí in Šumava. There, Jaroslava Preislerová lived through the end of the war and the period after the communist takeover, when Jaroslava Bauer‘s father‘s business was nationalized. She thus recalls a period of fear and great injustice, which she often witnessed. The family‘s situation was not easy. With help from her teacher, the father started working in a galvanic workshop in Aerovka, and then the currency reform deprived them of their only savings. Jaroslava graduated from secondary medical school but only worked in the field for a short time. And after maternity leave, she joined the International and Intercity Center in Prague. Thanks to her knowledge of English, she began connecting international calls over time. This brought constant scrutiny and pressure to disown relatives on her mother‘s side who had returned to America. But she never did that. After the Velvet Revolution, her only daughter married in the USA. Jaroslava Preislerová lived in Prague at the time of filming.
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!
