"When we thought the war was over, my mum and I went home to clean up the place, because the windows were broken after the air raids. So we went there to clean up, but it wasn't 100% quiet yet. The opposite street was built up with houses on both sides, but opposite our entrance there was still an empty site, a kind of gap, which was later built up. The Romanians who had first fought with the Germans, but then separated, were quartered there. And the Romanian soldiers started shooting just when we were out of the shelter with my mum. Mum was mopping the floor, I was sweeping the stairs, tidying up the glass. The Romanian soldiers already knew it was over and started shooting for joy. We were so scared that we ran into the shelter with a bucket and wet rags, thinking it [the war] was going on, while that was the end."
We differed from the Germans from Brno by ‘svéráz‘ (peculiarity)
"The Germans used to wear white knee socks, from Tirol, and leather trousers. These were called 'with drawbridge'. The Tirol costume distinguished them in their dress. And the women wore dirndls, or a high-waisted skirt, with a nice blouse with some German decorating on it. And the men wore these leather trousers with these 'drawbridges'. So that's how the Germans differentiated themselves from the Czechs back then. And on purpose, we learned how to embroider ‘svéráz‘ . We used to embroider either the sleeves or the whole dress with Slavic embroidery. I had Ruthenian or Slovak embroidery. We called it ‘svéráz‘ (peculiarity).
"Hitler drove to Liberty Square and from there along Zámečnická Street to Dominikánské Square, where the town hall was and still is. There they cleared it all away, gathered all the people along the houses. And then motorbikes came, so we thought, what's going on? It won´t probably be the war, there will be no shooting, and suddenly an open car came, quite slowly, quietly, from the German House. At that time the street was called Rašínova. He drove across the little square, past the Moravian Bank, and came up Zamečnická Street to the town hall, and in that open car Mr. Adolf [Hitler] was turning to the left, to the right, where people were standing, his arm raised, maybe even bowing. We were standing with our mouths open. There was a girl with us, a proper Czech girl. And when the car arrived and Štefka raised her right arm, I hit her over the arm and said: 'Štefka, what are you doing?' She saw all the Germans raising their arms, so she raised her arm too. And then she put it behind her back. Later we always reminded her of it when we met."
Zdeňka Zavřelová, née Švábenská, was born into a Czech family in Brno. Her father was a civilian employee of the military administration. In 1925 the family moved to Šumperk in northern Moravia, where at that time mainly Germans lived. Her father worked as a clerk for the local 13th infantry regiment. Zdeňka grew up in a Czech community and attended a Czech school. In 1934 she returned to Brno with her parents, where she finished upper primary school and graduated from a two-year business school. She witnessed the growing German nationalism among the Germans of Brno. She remembers the visit of Adolf Hitler on 17 March 1939, who was greeted enthusiastically by crowds of Brno Germans. During the Protectorate, she worked at the Zbrojovka (arms factory). At the end of the German occupation she experienced the bombing of Brno. Shortly after the war she married and moved with her husband to Bílovec in northern Moravia. She worked as a clerk at Koh-i-noor company. She and her husband raised three daughters. In 2022 she was living in Bílovec.
Zdeňka Zavřelová - on the occasion of her performance on the anniversary of the birth of T. G. Masaryk in the hall of the military regiment in Šumperk, 7 March 1926
Zdeňka Zavřelová - on the occasion of her performance on the anniversary of the birth of T. G. Masaryk in the hall of the military regiment in Šumperk, 7 March 1926
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