Květuše Tůmová

* 1950

  • "I have the strongest memories of my time as a small girl at my grandma's - that's not coming back. Grandma didn't want to use electricity, trying to save money. So instead, she used the oil lamp which she had ready at all times. In the winter she'd make fire in the stove and flames were licking the walls. I was usually there with Mirak and Cipar. She used to tell us scary stories. She liked to say that the Roma were well off at times of the monarchy. I think she had Franz Joseph I. in mind. She told us that he gave her money - a ducat. For her, that was a precious thing, so she drilled a hole into it and wore it on her neck. I don't know whether they put it in the grave with her or where had it gone but she was proud of it. Every time she'd tell us the story, she'd show us the coin to prove she had it. I don't know exactly what happened - allegedly, he spotted her, got from his horse and gave her the coin. I suppose she was good looking in her young years. My grandma didn't know to write but nevertheless was a very intelligent woman. She was great at counting. She hated writing three crosses instead of her name, and when we started school we had to teach her to write her name at least. 'I won't be doing those crosses forever,' she said. Me and Mirak taught her over and over and she managed. She felt ashamed of not knowing to write."

  • "My mum said that her dad had to tear down their house with a pickax. Tears were running down his face; all of them wept. They moved to Hineška. They would've probably never gone to Bohemia, had they not been forced to leave their homes. They then came over to get a house and a job. My mum never returned; she recalled her dad destroying the house and weeping. I was there only once so I know where they had lived but I never went under Hineška because there was nobody to show me the place they were expelled to. They went for better life. After WW II. my grandpa started working at steelworks in Hrádek u Rokycan. Something fell in his eye and he lost it. I don't remember him well; he was already very ill back then and died when I was seven years old. I feared him because he kept shouting at us. My mum said that there were good people in Rokycany and that they had good relations. We moved to the street where today, Kaufland is located. The house is no more. The street was called Na Práchovně. All of the people knew us there and respected my parents. Later, it wasn't so. The town used to be small and everyone knew each other. There was nothing around here."

  • "One day, the Germans came to the village. They arrested all of the people except for the children and the elderly. First, they drove them to Sabinov and locked them in a prison. There were many Romani people from other villages as well, it was crammed. My mum said that she couldn't move the whole night. In the morning - without food or drinks - they dragged them to the station, put them into railway cars and drove them someplace far. I can't estimate how long it could've taken to Plaveč. They still needed to walk some five or seven kilometers to the camp. The living conditions there were horrible. Russian were also imprisoned there, getting beaten all the time and left without food. When the Romani people had some food, they secretly shared. The Roma were digging trenches. There was one terrible German officer whom everyone feared. He would rape young girls, sometimes in front of the eyes of their family members. He wanted my mum too, but they managed to hide her in a heap of hay. When a German commander arrived, a Romani man who knew some German, took the courage to tell him what was happening to the girls. By miracle, that guy was posted away. My mum said it got a bit better then but she hadn't stayed for long. She was there for about three months, planning an escape. Sometime, she was allowed to go beg for some food in the village. My parents decided that when they'd go dig trenches, they'd excape. Having no shoes, they covered their feet in straws. She told me they only walked at night through the forests. I can't imagine how they found their way home."

  • Celé nahrávky
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    český rozhlas Plzeň, 27.02.2017

    (audio)
    délka: 01:47:28
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

My father didn‘t want us to hang out with other Romani people

Květa Tomášová, 1968
Květa Tomášová, 1968
zdroj: archív Květy Tomášové

Květa Tůmová, née Tomášová, was born on 15 May 1950 in Rokycany into a Romani family. Her parents were originally from Slovakia. She had five siblings, of whom three died at young age. During the war he father Štefan Tomáš defected to the partisans, following the step-brother of his wife. He joined the army of general Svoboda and accompanied it all the way to Prague. He stayed there up until finishing his military service. In the fall of 1945 the Tomáš family moved for work to Rokycany, Bohemia. Květa finished elementary school in 1960. Her father didn‘t allow her to study further, and so she had to take up a blue-collar job at Kovohutě. The same year, her uncle Andrej Giňa established the band Sextet in which she sang for three years along with her cousin Miroslav Giňa. She got married twice. In 1968 she gave birth to a son, and later to three daughters. She has eight granddaughters and five great-grandchildren. Over the years she worked in several jobs; as a cashier, head of a petrol station, cleaner, and field social worker. She has the best memories of all of a demanding railway job in Rokycany which she did from 1978 till 1986. She has retired in 2008 but keeps on working. At present she works on her family tree. Ever since 2017 she is an active member of the Roma female association Manushe. She organizes events for children, and collaborates with the writer Ilona Ferková.