Magdaléna Smělá

* 1939

  • “It was my confirmation service on the day of the currency reform. For two weeks ahead, my parents had planned to spend the entire morning in church and then have a lunch at a restaurant. We had no idea about the currency reform at the time. Then we came to a restaurant and it was packed because people wanted to spend their money. At the time, my parents didn’t even have enough money to exchange.”

  • “Khrushchev once wrote an article about art, and it resonated everywhere, especially in our school. His statements in the article were completely incompetent; he was defending socialist realism and asking why painters wouldn’t paint landscapes with birch trees. The ministry then probably issued an order to organise a seminar about it at UMPRUM. They summoned us all to the large exhibition hall. Who was the speaker? Hoffmeister! And he was so servile, he made us want to spit in front of him. He started defending Khrushchev! I couldn’t understand how clumsy his arguments were, given his intelligence. He prattled, not knowing what to say… We students were totally disgusted.”

  • “The Sokol rally in June 1948 was a demonstration, especially the men’s exercise. It still gives me chills when I remember it! At one point, the entire stadium whistled – I still remember the melody because my dad used to whistle it often afterwards.”

  • “My father set up his own business before the war and had a shop in Haštalská, but he kept in touch with Jewish businessman Löwy with whom he worked earlier. One day, Mr Löwy offered my father a new Chinese carpet. Father was surprised, and Mr Löwy explained: ‘My daughter got married and she got a carpet for a wedding present, but we’re being deported now.’ Dad bought the carpet, and we kept it in our cabin in Krhanice for many years. Of course, the Löwys never came back. The entire family perished…”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Praha, 11.02.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 01:26:11
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Praha, 25.02.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 03:02:04
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

After decades of no freedom, the revolution came, but some mistook it for wantonness

Magdaléna Smělá. Around 1958
Magdaléna Smělá. Around 1958
zdroj: archiv pamětnice

Magdaléna Smělá, née Strnadová, was born in Prague on 28 September 1939. As a child, she was a Sokol member and took part in the XI national rally in 1948. Her father František Strnad owned a textile shop in the 1940s; he closed the shop after the communist coup and found an office job. He was forced to leave the job in the 1950s as part of the project of reassigning 70,000 people to worker positions. The father hid some of the goods at their cabin in Krhanice, and mother Vlasta Strnadová (née Bucháčková) used them to sew clothes to help the very modest family budget. While in primary school, Magdaléna Smělá witnessed the persecution of teachers who stayed true to the First Republic traditions and ideals. She completed her studies at the High School of Applied Art and then the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM). Along with creating her own art, she worked as a teacher for years at the high school in Prague-Žižkov where she had studied. She married Václav Smělý in 1960. Despite his qualification, her husband was banned from higher job positions due to his background until the 1980s – he was not a CPC member and used to serve with the Auxiliary Technical Battalion (PTP).