“When the Germans came, the main thing I remember was that we lived near the place where we live now and on the corner there stood a soldier with a panzerfaust. This is a very vivid memory that I have from the arrival of the Germans. Other than that, Terezín was a military town and we were used to soldiers, and thus it did not even seem strange to me when some other soldiers came there. It was just unusual that they guarded the streets. They covered the sign ‘Sokol’ at the local Sokol gym. I was eleven at that time.”
“We didn’t have anything and so they allotted us an apartment in Roudnice and we moved there. I stayed with my grandma’s while my parents moved our stuff and then I arrived to the new apartment. We knew that people from the whole town (Terezín) had to move out by the end of May. We received our grade certificates from school already in May and we did not have to go to school anymore. But I did attend school in Roudnice for one more month, because mom said that it would make no sense for me just to idle around. Transports of people began to pass by the school already in November or December (1941) and during the breaks we would stand by the windows and watch them. We only saw the people getting into the barracks. They occupied all of the barracks and we could see that they hanged their clothes and stored their food behind the windows.”
“The rally was held in the Strahov stadium. The women performed callisthenics at first, then there was a mass dance, which was a less strenuous exercise intended mainly for the older members, but which looked nice. The later Spartakiada rallies were more or less based on the model of Sokol rallies. All of us who exercised there were volunteers, we did not get a paid leave for it or anything like that. But all of them were so enthusiastic for it and they were looking forward to performing in Prague.”
Marie Žatecká, née Berniová, was born on May 11, 1928 in Vraný u Peruce, but she grew up in Terezín. Her father Danilo Berni came from Italy and he worked as a stonemason. Her mother Marie Berniová, née Fišerová, was a seamstress by trade, but she became a housewife when she married. Marie had younger sister Daniela, who was born on March 1, 1936. The family lived in Terezín until May 1942 when they had to leave in relation to the relocation of the civilian population of Terezín and the establishment of the Terezín ghetto. Transports of Jews began to arrive to the ghetto already in November 1941 and Marie personally witnessed their arrivals to the ghetto. When they moved to Roudnice nad Labem, her father began working there in another company as a stonemason and Marie studied the trade academy in Budyně nad Ohří. In 1946 the family returned to Terezín and Marie began working in the archive department of the criminal police in Litoměřice. In 1947-1950 she was involved in the Sokol sports organization as a coach and she participated in two All-Sokol Rallies. In 1949-1953 she worked in the district administration office in Lovosice. In 1951 she married Václav Žatecký; their son Václav was born a year later and their second son Petr in 1956. From 1958 Marie worked in the municipal administration office in Terezín, where she remained until her retirement in 1988. She lives in Terezín with her husband Václav Žatecký.
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!
