Hana Stehlíková

* 1928

  • "Most of the people [coming] to the farm were from the plains. Those who used to be deputies on the estates moved in. All they understood was that the headman told them what to do, where to go, and showed them the work. And now they've taken over a big farm, and they don't know how to farm. That was terrible. Across from us, when we lived in Filipka at that time, they lived there too, their son still lives there. They took over [the farm] across the road, they had a nice little middle farm, horses and cows. In the morning, it was already light, she was still sleeping - the farm girl."

  • "The thinnest cows from the JZD were harnessed to a ladder truck, they put some... they showed it like in America. Or they carried banners from Tiba and had these allegorical wagons. It was a rich factory, so they had it embellished. I know there was always this stuffed guy in a top hat and an American flag strutting around. It was just ridiculous. It was just a joke. At that time from the Metalworks - I had to go in the parade, there was no way I was going - I went with a friend whose mother had been in a concentration camp during the war and her dad had died. We were carrying flags, and when the parade was over, what to do with the flag? So we put them in the hallway of a house that had seamstresses from our company. And then one of ours, as they were called... Such a horrible communist, but an idiot, I can't really say it any other way, found out and told my friend Andula, who's mother had been in a concentration camp for years, to move out then, that she could go to America if she dared to do that with the Russian flag."

  • "My father was imprisoned under the Communists, but not for long. He was insulted in a pub, he got drunk, they were playing cards with that bunch in Višňová. And he said that Stalin and Gottwald, he was president then, that they were murderers. And this good guy, his name was Zajíc, I can't remember now, a drunkard, denounced him. At that time there was still a court in Frýdlant, Judge Tajovský. So my father was convicted for that and went to Frýdlant prison. But the commander of the prison was a Russian legionnaire like our father. So I was able to visit him there and bring him lemons and fruit and clean linen. Then he was even rehabilitated." - "And how long was he in prison?" - "Just over two months. That judge Tajovsky could have sent him, I don't know where, but he was sentenced and went early. I'm sure it was also because there was no witness against him. All the guys who were investigated said they didn't hear anything. Only one."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Frýdlant, 26.08.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 01:33:08
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

After the war, everything was celebrated. People rejoiced even though everything was on tickets

Hana Stehlíková in 1947
Hana Stehlíková in 1947
zdroj: archive of Hana Stehlikova

Hana Stehlíková, née Bernardová, was born on 25 July 1928 in Semily into the family of Antonín and Anna Bernard. Her father Antonín Bernard fought in World War I in Russia as a legionary in the 4th Prokop the Great Regiment, after the war he worked as a railwayman at the railway station and the family moved frequently. She grew up in Podmoklice near Semily, in Košt‘álov and finally in Rakousy, near Malá Skála. In 1934, she started attending the municipal school in Rakousy, and in her free time she used to climb the rocks of Český Ráj. In 1939, she entered the town school in Malá Skála and after graduating from the school she completed a one-year course in office work. In April 1945, she was the first to climb the Shadow Rock in the Hrubá Skála region with Jaroslav Janku. In May 1945, the family moved to Frýdlant in the border region, where her father took a job at the railway station in the village of Višňová (formerly Weigsdorf). In the 1950s, the Frýdlant court sent him to prison for two months for insulting Stalin and Gottwald. The witness worked in Višňová for the local administration, later in a mill or in the office of the disposal of craft supplies in Frýdlant. From 1950 until her retirement, she worked at the Frýdlant company Kovozávody (later part of the Elitex Frýdlant concern), where she met her husband Jiří Stehlík, who was involved in the development of the Dopleta double knitting machine. She and her husband raised a daughter Irena (1955) and a son Jiří (1959). In 2023 she lived with her husband in Frýdlant. We were able to record her story thanks to the support of the town of Frýdlant.