"We lived up on Europe Street, then Lenin Street. There we waited for hours for the government to return from Russia. From the airport, there was one person standing next to another, we were all tense, there was a strong atmosphere and a bit of hope that it would be good. But they didn't go, it was already afternoon and they were supposed to arrive around noon. But people couldn't disperse and they were still there waiting. And then they told us that they had taken a different route. And finally they told us the 'happy' news."
"That was at the Keramoproject. She (the manager) called me and explained that I had to get involved. She didn't want to let me go, she needed me because this one doctor engineer for foreign countries was working on something and I was writing it for him. It wasn't an interesting job for me, but it was quite good, there were two lawyers there, so quite good company. But the supervisor wanted me to join (the Communist Party). I didn't want to. She said it was only in small ways... I countered that I had two small children, that I was glad it was the end of the working hours and I was going home on time and didn't have to stay there. She said I could find a few hours. Then she gave me about three months to see how she said I'd decide. But about a fortnight later she called me and said I had to leave, that I could go to Konstruktiva, about ten to twelve people were leaving the Keramoproject at that time for Konstruktiva."
"We lived for ourselves, we always did our own thing. We didn't cry at home. We didn't want to get the kids involved in anything. We accepted the way things were. We did what we could for the kids. For example, the children learned languages. But the class teacher immediately said to my son: 'Well, such clever parents you have, they really think highly of you - football, don't they, and foreign languages, of course... you won't go out into the world unequipped!... They won't let you go out into the world unequipped...'"
Eva Uhlířová, née Barejšková, was born on 12 September 1924 in Prague into the family of a varnisher Josef Barejška and his wife Klára. She had a brother Václav. The family lived in a house that her parents built in Řepy. She started school there in 1930. In 1937 she graduated from the school and entered the school of the Boromean Sisters in Malá Strana for two years. Then she was forced to work in the Ringhoffer factories in Smíchov, where she worked twelve hours a day in harsh conditions as a worker in the arms industry. She was released after three years in February 1945. In May 1945, she experienced an air raid in Řepy, during which a neighbouring house was destroyed. During the liberation in May 1945, she met the Vlasov army who liberated Řepy, after which they were shot by Soviet soldiers. After the war, she attended a language school and improved her shorthand. In 1949, she married Jan Uhlíř, who studied at the university, but after February 1948 he had to quit his studies and worked as an ordinary clerk in Avia. His father Josef had to liquidate his varnish business when the communists came to power. She had two children in the 1950s, then worked at Keramoprojekt, where she refused to join the Communist Party, which led to her dismissal. For the rest of her working life she was employed at Konstruktiva, where the pressure was not to such an extent. She retired in 1979, after which she worked at the Prague Cultural Centre. In the 1990s she was widowed and also buried her prematurely deceased daughter. She raised a son and a daughter and took care of her grandchildren. In 2023 she was living in Prague. Eva Uhlířová died in 2024.
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!
