Dana Bartošová

* 1944

  • "It was a very happy time for me in Nejdek. Because we had a lot of children there who didn't know a word of Czech. There, a child came to our first grade and didn't know any Czech, because he was from the border, there were mostly Germans, right. So it was mainly about taking care of the children, walking around the neighborhood with them. It was beautiful, wasn't it? We had snow there on the 6th of June, so it was quite interesting. So I was there for ten years."

  • "My aunt just said - something is happening, it was announced on the radio. Indeed, they didn't have television and we didn't know anything, only the radio broadcasting. Well, as a curious historian, of course I had to be there, so I went to the Wenceslas Square, even though my aunt protested that something would happen to me and the like. Well, it was quite wild on Wenceslas Square, on the radio, right, I would probably repeat what someone has already told you, or what you know, but I saw with my own eyes how the tank caught fire there, how people were running there shouting, we were all afraid, right. Banners everywhere. Well, strangely enough, I met my classmate from Karlovy Vary, so the two of us went together, which felt kind of safer."

  • "As schoolkids the area was a big playground for us. It wasn't like today when we came home from school and were already under surveillance and reporting. There were no cell phones, no telephones. In the first grade, I got a key around my neck and my mom went to work, she worked as a spa attendant in Spa 1, and it was up to me. So we were running around the park and it was beautiful. I like to remember that today. In the winter, we even sledded on Škroupová street, because there were almost no cars driving past, right, so it was perfect. That was just nice.'

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    Praha, 23.10.2018

    (audio)
    délka: 56:28
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
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What to say to the children? How to explain the occupation to them?

wedding photo
wedding photo
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Dana Bartošová was born on November 16, 1944 in Prague. In 1945, the family moved to Karlovy Vary, where they got an apartment after the expelled Germans. After February 1948, the father was deposed from a leading position in the spa industry because he refused to join the Communist Party. The memorialist graduated from the Pedagogical Institute in Karlovy Vary and Pilsen, majoring in Czech - History. On August 21, 1968, she experienced the arrival of occupying troops in Prague. For the first ten years she taught in Nejdek near Karlovy Vary, in 1976 she moved to Prague. During her teaching practice, she faced the dilemma of how to talk to students about the occupation in August 1968.