"We had that after... church class was after normal class... that was always the last class. So we came, because there was no train going, we thought we'd walk. It was freezing, very cold. We [decided] to walk home along the state road. There were four of us girls and I counted, I don't know exactly, but it was either five or six boys. So we were marching, we were freezing. My mother gave me this scarf in the morning, which in those days they used to wear, the women used to call it something - I couldn't remember - on their head just, so they used to wrap it around, they used to call it something, I can't remember even now, made of some kind of itchy wool. So we [were walking] on this frozen snow, it was crunching under our feet. There was still a blizzard, new snow started to fall. And now a German military car was going. Suddenly it stopped in front of us, a man got out and in broken Czech [said] to get on the open car. It wasn't even covered with a canopy or something. I was taught from a very young age not to start anything with them, rather not to talk to them at all, but two boys and three girls sat down with them. They helped them get up there because we were all frozen, and [they said], 'You come too!' We didn't go, the rest of us kept on walking and we did well because the bastards let it go full blast and threw them out of the cars... they threw them out of the moving car."
"It was always my older cousin who got on his bike and [said], 'You've got to come and get the pig because the inspection is coming!' Mummy was on her own, Daddy was employed in Olomouc - and now, how do we do it. She came up with a good idea - well, it seemed good to us, but then it turned up on us. She took a deep pram, threw some blankets in it and we went through the so-called "humna" [area behind houses and gardens]. Do you know what humna is?" - "Yes." - "Not the village, but behind the gardens we went to my uncle's. He still praised my mother, laughed, said, 'You have a good idea.' It was still a little pig, they put him in some white cloth and we were pushing the pram. The pig liked it at first and just turned around a bit, but as we were going it, it went wild, overturned the pram and ran away into the Great German Empire..."
"They were riding in the parade on horseback, they had a part that was dedicated to the horses. He was studying in Hranice at some military school. So they were also riding in a parade, suddenly the parade stopped, there were some people who came among those on horses, and suddenly I could just see from a distance - it was still distant, then I asked the permission and I could go there to see - the parade stopped and they were just arresting right in the parade. The boys had to get off their horses. They took them away, and I was still following my cousin and wanted to say goodbye to him, to let him know that I saw it, and I was pushed away rather roughly, I couldn't even shake his hand. I just called out to him to let him know I could see what was happening to them. About twelve boys were taken away and were not allowed to return to the school in Hranice."
Drahomíra Ševčíková, née Bartošová, was born on 1 December 1931 in Štarnov as the older of two children of her parents, Vlasta and Josef Bartoš. Her parents, patriots and Sokol members, led their children to exercise from an early age. Drahomíra as a four-year-old was welcoming President Masaryk in a Sokol costume in Olomouc. Her father was an employee of the health insurance company in Olomouc, her mother was a housewife. Drahomíra witnessed local war events and the liberation of Štarnov, after the German occupation of the border area in 1938 the Bartoš family lived close to the border with the Reich. Between 1946 and 1948 she studied at the two-year business school in Olomouc (Pöttingeum). In 1948 she took part in the All-Sokol meeting in Prague. From 1948 she worked for two years as a recorder, then for most of her life as a registrar at the municipal office in Šternberk. In 1956 she married Josef Ševčík, an employee of the State Road Company. In 1960 their daughter Eva was born. In the 1970s, Drahomíra Ševčíková repeatedly allowed a group of Sternberg dissidents access to the cyclostyle on the premises of the town office and thus facilitated the dissemination of samizdat, which at that time was punishable by imprisonment. She was instrumental in founding the local Civic Affairs Committee. In 2007 she was awarded the Šternberk Town Award for her lifetime contribution to the citizens of the town. In 2024, at the time of recording, she was living in Šternberk.
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