One of the Czech reader’s commentaries on our web site “How can you ensure that your stories will be part of elementary and high school history classes?” inspired the following activity. We, the Daughters of Political Prisoners are a self-support group. Our activities are on a voluntary basis. They include lectures, discussion after viewing films with a Stalinist theme…
Contact: Jana Svehlova jsvehlova@yahoo.com We are the Daughters of the Enemy = children of political prisoners from the Stalinist era in former Czechoslovakia; now Czech Republic and Slovakia. Our aim is to educate younger generations about life under totalitarianism to prevent history from repeating itself in our country or anywhere else. We are registered with the Czech Ministry…
Prosecutor Karel Vas is known as the Red Executor. He sent innocent people to the gallows in communist Czechoslovakia during the 1950s.
Before they are all gone, it is my dream to see a documentary with Czech children (now middle-aged) of former non-communist and communist political prisoners from the 1950s, exchanging their stories in front of the camera. It could help to gain insight into their unresolved pain and anger related to the past by the opportunity to listen to the pain of…
The documentaries Children of Stalinism for Czech TV depict the consequences on these children of their parents’ imprisonment. The following is a commentary on two opposing points of view.
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…
My beloved mother, my dear children (his wife, father and brothers were in prison at the time, being tortured by interrogators), On 1/29/1955 the Supreme Court sentenced me to death. My dear mother, my dear children, I think about you all the time. I think about Lidunka (his wife), dad and my brothers. I love you all more than…
Daughters project finds healing in a harrowing chronicle of imprisonment and survival during the communist era May 28th, 2008 issue By Bibiana Duhárová For the PostWhen dealing with the past, one must count on either returning to the “good old times” or opening old wounds. Ludmila Vaďurová, 64, is looking to do neither. A pleasant, light-spirited woman who spent most…
Trauma and Identity by Gaby Glassman (Excerpt) Introduction This paper will address some aspects of trauma and look at how trauma has affected four types of survivor in various ways: Current refugee and asylum seekers; Jewish women during the Holocaust; Hidden children; and Survivors of terror under communism.
