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The Girl from Prague
When Mrs. M. mentions that she is nervous about the interview, I tell her that I share her feelings because she is the first of the respondents I am interviewing. I suggest starting with her childhood memories. It is now 10 a.m. Her father was arrested when she was four. She admits not remembering the time surrounding his arrest, only, […]
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The next horror came, when we were looking for a doctor to take care of our mother
In 1951, my parents Bedřich and Jarmila Koller, and my seventeen year old sister were factory workers in Uherský Brod. We, the two younger sisters, Jarmila and Věra were still in elementary school. Our father was a member of the National Socialist Party, not to be confused with the German Nazi party, that was not popular with the Communists. That is why, […]
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Politician’s Mom
This interview takes place in one of Prague’s most famous cafés. Mrs. D. and I find a place away from the window tables occupied by tourists, speaking many different languages. I remember the times of my youth here. During the years of Stalinism, one would turn when hearing someone speaking a foreign language. Now it is almost the reverse.
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One memory – one life
I would like to show how one memory in life might become the meaning of life. It was Christmas 1951 in Prague when my father was arrested and imprisoned. I was born two moths premature in February 1952. After spending three month in hospital in incubator with lung infection, my mother has taken me to her mother, my grandma in Ceske […]
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The Traveler
The chance to meet Mrs. V. has been uncertain from the beginning. She has retuned from visiting her son and daughter in the U.S. two days ago; they emigrated after the fall of communism. Over the phone, she let me know that she could talk to me only for one hour. She had too much work after […]
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They Called her a Kulak
Mrs. G. waits for me at the railway station of her beautifully renovated holiday resort town. We agreed that I would recognize her by a white envelope in her hand. I knew about some of her experiences from her letter she sent after reading my advertisement in the newsletter. I am not sure why but I have a hard time not […]
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The Director’s Daughter
When I searched for daughters of political prisoners, willing to talk about their experiences, one of the criteria was age 5—12 during the 1950s. Mrs. K. responded with a letter stating, “… I would like to participate even though I am older than the requested elementary school age. My father was imprisoned for 5 years from 1949 to 1954 in Leopoldov, Ruzyn, at the end in […]
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Everybody is responsible for one’s luck, but totalitarians are responsible for misfortune of others.
Or — every story has its prologue. The story of our family, persecuted during the communist era, is like a story of thousands of individuals and their families. The prologue of those family tragedies goes back to the 1930s when our future communist president Gottwald said in the Parliament, „ We Communists go to Moscow to learn how to break […]
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The Fighter
From Mrs. P’s letter I am aware that she is afraid to travel. She is waiting in front her apartment building. Her manner of speech is rapid. She acts hurried. We climb four flights of stairs to her apartment.
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After her arrest, Miluška Havlůjová did not see her baby for 2 years
Miluška Havlůjová (Pomplová) was born into a patriotic Czech family in 1929. She was a fashion model and she also worked as an office clerk. Her parents joined the resistance movement in their area of Rožmitál pod Třemšínem during the WWII German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Her mother was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, but miraculously survived in […]
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![](data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="22" height="42" viewBox="0 0 22 42" fill="none"><path d="M1.07373 40.3579L20.4316 21L1.07373 1.64209" stroke="black" stroke-width="2"/></svg>)
we are the daughters of political prisoners from the 1950s
Some of us participated in research on the psychological effects on children in families persecuted by the communist regime. There were originally twelve of us (in 1999). Thus a group of women was formed, which has grown over time to sixty members (2008). We meet twice a year, and many of us have become friends.
Latest Posts
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Red Executor’s Daughter — her pain and her generosity
Prosecutor Karel Vas is known as the Red Executor. He sent innocent people to the gallows in communist Czechoslovakia during the 1950s.