“The Protectorate was established and Slovakia went independent. And there were borders and passports necessary. When I got married so I got to Slovakia to Bratislava, it was in August 1939, as my husband had in his papers noted ‚mit Gattin‘ (note: with the wife). But not back. I saw my parents in a year. There were no alimentation tickets for anything; though it was a lot of food, everything in the market. Ducks, geese, butter without tickets. When I got to Prague later, I always brought something for them. So that they have enough as in Prague there was not even clothes, shoes. And mainly cigarettes. As you could smoke four a day in protectorate.”
“Well so I went to Žárnovice. It was near Bystrica (note: Banská Bystrica), a village really. And my daughter was not even four back then. I feared a lot. Someone knocked on my window for fun and I was already frightened. And once I got really scared as the gang was shining, it was a kind of a veranda in front of the house. I was wondering why, as I stayed at home and locked up well. I went out and someone was knocking on the door. So I asked as I knew it was a German guard, so I asked in German who it was. And they were inquiring about the light. There was a strict ban of lighting after it got dark. I apologised and it all ended up that way. But I feared that someone sees the light and starts shooting immediately.”
“Then there were still some rumours that Germans were walking across the roofs and courtyards into houses. We feared that as we heard that in Vinohrady it ended up really bad. So people were hiding in the cellar and shaking with fear. But nothing ever happened. We made our own home brewed beer. So that we had something to drink if the water was not running. And the beer lasted in bottles. We were afraid that the water was poisoned or tubes defected. So that was a good idea.”
Věra Šestáková, née Bernhardová, was born in Prague-Bubeneč on 31 August, 1920. Her father Karel Bernhard made his living as a band-master and a music composer. Her mother Marie was taking care of the household all her life. Already as a student of the commerce academy the witness met her future husband Tomáš Šesták, who later worked as an authorised army land surveyor. He came from Slovakia, where he went with his wife soon after the wedding in 1939. They got to Slovakia all right, but could not come back. The war broke out and the Slovak state has been established and Věra Šestáková unwillingly had to stay in Slovakia. In 1944 the rumors went on about the upcoming fights in Bratislava. The witness and her daughter moved to Banská Bystrica, where soon the Slovak National Uprising broke out. Via Bratislava she got back with to Prague her small daughter. On her journey she experienced train shelling by American pilots, who tried to destroy trains with German army. Few months after her arrival the Prague Uprising broke out. After liberation she happily reunited with her husband. After the war ended he remained in the army and later worked as a director of the Technical museum in Brno. In 1969 he was deposed from the position and transferred to the museum printers. Věra Šestáková lived in Brno. Věra Šestáková died on 26 March 2019.
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