Helena Wiplerová

* 1946

  • "I went to the interrogation. I thought, 'Well, girl, you have to make a fool or a jerk of yourself, or you won't make it. So, I went there - I didn't know anything, I didn't hear anything, I didn't know anyone, I didn't even read Babička (a very famous czech novella written by Božena Němcová). I just looked like an asshole at that interrogation and they kept going, the one especially. And then suddenly, only one interrogated me. I don't know why, there were always two people interrogating, and suddenly there was only one. It took four hours. I'll tell you, I was dragged down mentally. I didn't even know what I was looking at anymore. They gave me photos, gave me lists of who I knew. I wouldn't even know my own mother anymore, that was how I felt. Well, and then there was some man and he said he was a criminal lawyer, some high batch. So, when he left, he told me, 'Well, you see, we were nice to you.' I looked at him and said, 'Like that you didn't hit me?' And he said nothing. 'So, you think that you didn't hit me? But I didn't do anything!' and I was walking out. And there was a young boy standing by that door. I don't know, I just really care about the young people, and I guess he felt bad, and I was already married - sorry, I was a divorced Zahradníková. And there were two of them standing at the door in a uniform, as it is the case at the criminal department. The one I walked around told me completely inaudibly, only I could hear: 'Change the name. Change the name and it will be calm.'"

  • "Always at a time when there were raids and he had to play the accordion, or when they hung somebody and he had to play the accordion - and he saw the horror - then at that time the thoughts came back to him and the panic attacks returned to him and he always locked himself in a room and he locked himself in there with me. And I remember standing there, I had to go. We had that old couch with that pillow under one´s head. You must have seen it in the photos somewhere. There he laid face down and cried. I stood by him from the other side. What will a small child do when they see someone they love? So, they lie down on them. I always laid on his head and dipped my hands into his hair. He had beautiful hair. And now I did one thing, which I later used on patients. I learned to breathe to relieve his suffering. Then we got together in that breath and I remember standing there and thinking of nothing at all. I was verry little and I just breathed with him. That breathing together, it's a wonderfully healing thing for the psyche."

  • "My uncle was taken away and the family no longer saw him. And then they were moving him from a concentration camp, that's what the Nazis did. So, when he arrived in Mauthausen, where he was basically until the end of the war - in the meantime he went through Buchenwald and whatever else, but the music always saved him. First, he was there where they had to pull the prisoners out of those gas chambers. He couldn't do it at all. It seemed that they would kill him too, because they found him just useless. And then they let him drag some burdens, but eventually they found out that he was a very good musician. And the Germans liked the music. So, they made a music ensemble out of them - out of all those musicians. And of course, he had to play during those drinking parties and during those raids."

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Pardubice, 16.11.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 02:06:57
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - HRK REG ED
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

She was breathing with her uncle to rid him of the fears from the concentration camp

Schoolgirl Helena Wiplerová plays the accordion, circa 1960
Schoolgirl Helena Wiplerová plays the accordion, circa 1960
zdroj: archive of the witness

Helena Wiplerová was born on March 9, 1946 in Hradec Králové. As a child, she lived with her parents, younger sister and other relatives in the apartment of her uncle Zdeněk Štaubert, who returned from a concentration camp. Her childhood was not easy. Her uncle was suffering from war depressions. Her mother caught severe tuberculosis and had to be treated for a long time. Both little sisters were placed in an orphanage for some time. Her sister died at an early age after receiving a vaccine against tuberculosis. Her uncle, whom she loved very much, died in a motorcycle accident. Helena Wiplerová graduated from a medical school and worked in healthcare. She got married in 1966 and her daughter Karla was born in 1968. However, she got divorced soon and took care of her daughter as a single parent. At the time of normalization, she faced a number of problems. The State Security was interested in her and she subsequently got fired. Her daughter Karla had great trouble getting to the conservatory. She got married for a second time and had a son, Jan. After 1989, she continued to work in healthcare and graduated with a master‘s degree in that field. After retiring, she worked in a hospice in Prague. She also worked as a tourist guide at Prague Castle. In 2021, she played extra roles in film and television. Her daughter Karla graduated from the conservatory and AMU and in 2021 she worked as an opera director. Her son Jan studied natural sciences at Charles University and devoted himself to microbiology. In 2021 she had a twenty-year-old grandson and lived in Hradec Králové.