"There were also people sitting there who weren't very successful, but they got these jobs because they were high officials. For example, I once won a competition to make a tablecloth for the U Benedikta pub. I worked with brown and white and I also created a stylized font. And because I was presenting to the commission at the same time some dresses that I made for ÚBOK (the Institute of Housing and Textile Culture), it seemed to them that I had a lot of orders at once. So, they only approved the dresses for me and not the tablecloth. They were not sure about the font. I took it back and I was angry. In the meantime, I didn't even touch it and I reappeared there with it in a week. They said again that they still didn't feel good about it. It wasn't until the third week that they realized that was it, but I did not change a single thing on it. They did it just to annoy. It was just bullying."
"Beautiful men's dresses were also made there. A large export of tartan, which means cubes, was for England. And in order to sell well, the English made a condition that a label Made in England must be weave into the fabric. It offended me terribly, because I knew that from the first thread, that is, from the first processing, everything is done here. There were also amazing designers who drew the patterns on a graph paper. They were beautiful products that all went to Tuzex. I remember coming there once and some ladies standing by and saying, 'It's all completely different when the fabric on a skirt is from England. Do you see it?´ I knew it was from Textilana, so I told them it was ours and that it was just written there. None of them believed me."
"They brought me two young boys who took pictures of it all and said that they would bring it to Vienna, including the films. The next day, I had to put them both in my Fiat Six Hundred, which I happened to have with me. It was quite dangerous because we had no idea what was going on. Martial law was declared in Prague. This meant that we had to cross the city borders within a certain time, otherwise we would be shot. Those people were amazing, I'll never forget that. They helped us and advised us where not to go, where the guards stand and where to go around it. Some even got in the car and drove half a kilometer with us. We zigzagged through incredible things and tried to avoid the Russians. At that time, there was no motorway yet, so it was quite a distance between Prague and Liberec, and we also had to go around various villages. In the end, we made it just in time."
"The head teacher Fiala took us in and accommodated me and my mother in the basement of his villa. He himself had two daughters, and the situation was even more dangerous. We didn't want anyone to betray us. They brought us a tiny stove in the cellar without windows, in which there was no heating. I remember that we went cones picking at night in the Brdy forests so that no one would see us. We collected them in a large canvas bag and used them for heating. I didn't see dad until after liberation. As a partisan, he also went to the woods. I don't remember exactly what kind of section it was. He was a graduate architect and perhaps this also influenced the fact that he took part in blowing up the bridge in Všenory."
Jarmila Trösterová was born on April 20, 1941 in Prague. Her father František Tröster was an important theater set designer, whom the Nazis described in 1944 as a so-called perverted artist and sent him to the forced labor (total deployment). After his return, he immediately became involved in the resistance and preparations for the Prague Uprising, which caused considerable complications for the rest of the family. Jarmila graduated from the textile creation studio of Professor Antonín Kybal at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. In the mid-1960s, she joined the Textilana Liberec as an artist, where she gradually worked her way up to became one of the main designers. She also represented the company at fashion fairs in Paris. At the same time, she became involved in the then starting Ypsilon Theater. In August 1968, after the arrival of the occupying troops, she took part in the Liberec resistance movement with this group of theatergoers. In the 1970s and 1980s, she worked for the Institute of Housing Culture and the School Institute of Art. At the same time, she made several large foreign orders for the Art Center, such as the curtain for the Royal Palace in Tehran or the Space Museum in Almaty. In 1984 she joined the Communist Party. After the Velvet Revolution, she succeeded in promoting the technique of Czech bobbin lace abroad.
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!
