“At that Swedish computer, we actually recorded all the news that was on the radio for a fortnight. It was with the help of the two Swedes who were there that we sent them to foreign newsrooms. So we consciously started working against the Russians. The next years that came were terribly sad.”
“We all walked alongside those tanks. But we all spoke Russian because we learnt Russian at school. Therefore, we talked to them: "And what do you want here?", "Go home," "You have nothing to do here." Well, when some of them, they were young guys, just had a bad time, they started shooting. And that's the first time in my life, before it dawned on me, it took me a while, I was standing on those stairs by that museum, and suddenly there was such a sound. And, they shot at that museum. It's terrible, it's terrible. Then we went up, there the tram had been derailed and turned over; it was on fire. Then I saw the first people who were injured.”
“Those computers weren't supposed to be American, so they were Swedish. The Swedish government donated four computers to us. After that, when I started going to the computer there, they gave us a Swedish programmer to teach us. We also had the advantage; I forgot to mention that I took intensive English lessons, that is why I signed up for that English as well. However, we were the only two schools in Prague that had it, it was our wonderful headmistress who chose it, that intensive English got into this school. Well, I worked with the computer for a year.”
Magdalena Třebická, née Nováčková, was born on March 29, 1944 in Modřany, which at that time was still an independent town, not incorporated into the capital. After elementary school, she graduated from high school in Prague-Braník with intensive English lessons and subsequently applied for university studies in English. However, she was not accepted to study, and she entered the Prague University of Economics instead. At that time, a completely new field focused on computer technology, called Mechanization and automation of control work, was just opening. At school, Magdalena saw a real computer for the first time in her life. During the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops, she witnessed the shooting at the National Museum, and with her Swedish colleague sent messages to foreign newsrooms in the first days of the invasion. After the revolution, she founded her own business, Softpro. She later moved to Říčany and began to devote herself to supporting the socially excluded and communal politics. In 2022, she lived in Mnichovice, Central Bohemia.
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!
