"In August 1989, I signed Několik vět. It was in Horka, I was with some railwaymen, who were friends of one of my friends. I was a swimming instructor at a pool and I worked for 700 Czech crowns a month. My son was sick, so I would go there only in the mornings so that I could take care of him later. In August I signed it and on September 13 they announced my name on Radio Free Europe: Milada Vaňková, teacher. And you know what? The next day I left the house at seven thirty, I went to the swimming pool and I met Ivan Lukavský, who is an artist, and he said to me: 'I heard that a woman called Vaňková signed it, do you think there are more of them in the country?' I told him that I didn’t know, but that I had signed it. I got to the pool and found out how many people actually listen to Free Europe, so I became famous."
"My grandfather [Alois Věkoslav Krejzlík] was captured because of being Austrian, but then he escaped, joined the legions and he also learned Russian there. When the war was over, he started to 'gavarit' (to speak) in Russian with one of the Soviet soldiers." The soldier asked him if he had a watch and what time it was. Grandpa checked the watch and the soldier wanted to get it from him. So grandpa gave him the watch and the soldier put it on, he already had five of them on his hand, and grandpa politely told him that that is not a nice thing to do. The Russian was carrying a sack on his back, it was a duvet cover, and he said to grandpa: 'Well, you know what, you gave me the watch, I'll give you everything I have in the sack.' He had sugar, a grinder, a bit of this and a bit of that, everything stuck together, it was not of any use. And that's how my legionary grandfather met the Soviet army."
"The first time I went to vote, it was for some town authority. The headmaster of the Hejčín Gymnasium lived in our street, his wife was my mother’s classmate. We went behind the booth, everyone took the ballot and casted their vote. Even though the booth was there, it was written down who went behind it. Everyone threw the ballots in the box, and then, when I went behind the booth, I had to do something different, as always. So when I was there, I put the ballot in my pocket and I threw in the empty envelope. My mom's friend said, 'They all voted in favor, but somebody didn't throw the ballot in, how is that even possible?' And it was me."
Milada Vaňková was born on July 7, 1944 in Olomouc as the younger of two children to her parents Stanislav Vaňek and Milada Vaňková, nee. Krejzlíková. Her paternal grandfather, Jan Vaněk, was a paper mill worker from Olšany near Šumperk, later he became a trade union leader. He was originally a social democrat, who co-founded the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in Šumperk in 1921. Milada Vaňková‘s father worked at the Heikorn company in Olomouc. During the war, the Germans took over the company (and changed its name to the Milo plant) and Stanislav Vaněk worked his way up to the position of the authorized representative of the company. After the war, he rejoined the Communist Party and became the director of the Milo plant, however, he was removed from his position in 1949. Her mother worked at the Moravian Theatre, where she sewed costumes, and later she was a stay-at-home mom and she also volunteered at the Red Cross. Milada‘s maternal grandfather, Alois Věkoslav Krejzlík, was a legionary and later he became an actor at the Moravian Theatre in Olomouc. Milada Vaňková graduated from a gymnasium in Olomouc, then from the Pedagogical Institute in Olomouc. She worked as a teacher and a swimming instructor. In 1967 she married Karel Hotový, an architect and a musician, and they had two children together. In 1989 she signed a document called Několik vět (Several Sentences). In the same year she participated in demonstrations in Olomouc. In 2022, at the time of the shooting, she was living in Olomouc.
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!
