Věra Burešová

* 1939

  • "When there was an air raid on Cologne, we had to run with our parents, we took blankets and went to Cikorka in the direction of Tři dvory to the ditch. We lay down there, my mother covered us there and we watched them bombard the station. That was the whole in flames. And of course it also exploded behind us, at Petrolka, which is now KORAMO, where fuel for cars, tanks and everything else was produced. So, the Germans bombed it too. We returned home happy that we still had our house."

  • "At that time, the soldiers of the Warsaw Pact came here, they occupied Czechoslovakia. I was just carrying laundry to the laundry in a carriage and there was a soldier standing at the intersection, directing the traffic. And I said: 'The Russians on tanks, after all, they liberated us, so what harm would they do to us?' ‘That’s how I was today. I took the laundry, I drove back and I saw people starting to panic. They started occupying stores and buying supplies. They were there with cars, taking a bag of potatoes, a bag of flour; because they thought, the Russians were here, that there would be a lot of us here and there would not be anything to eat. And, I remember that I hung the curtains and we had the TV on. Jarmila Korandová from the Brno radio station reported: 'So now I can hear footsteps going upstairs, banging on the door and you I won't say anything, they are already here.' Therefore, of course, that was the end. Well, we at the school this year 1968 of course, went through background checks. Comrades from the national committee came and asked us if we approved the entry of troops into our territory. We had to answer that."

  • "I am a war child, I experienced the Second World War. As children, of course, we were terrified of it. There was a cellar in our house, my father made double doors there and we left the door open. And whoever, when the sirens started to sound, people of course they were afraid and ran to us. We locked ourselves down in the cellar and waited there for them to blow the horn again and it was over."

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    Kolín , 29.11.2018

    (audio)
    délka: 40:17
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
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I am a war child

Věra Burešová (en)
Věra Burešová (en)
zdroj: Archiv Věry Burešové

Věra Burešová, née Mejstříková, was born on June 7, 1939 in Kolín, where she spent almost her entire life. She spent her early childhood during World War II. Memories of them hiding from air raids and watching the burning station from afar stuck in her memory. After the end of the war, she entered the first grade at an elementary school called U kostelíčka. There she finished the first grade and went to the 6th elementary school. After completing compulsory schooling, she continued at the pedagogical school in Teplice, where she lived in a boarding school. However, due to the distance, she transferred to an available position at pedagogic school in Brandýs nad Labem in her first year. In the end, she graduated with honours from the pedagogical school in Kutná Hora, where students living in Kolín moved from Brandýs during their studies. After school, she started working as a teacher in Kouřim, where she worked for three years. When becaming pregnant, she returned to Cologne for health reasons and worked in a school club for a short time. After maternity leave, during which she took care of her two sons, Aleš and Zdeněk, she started teaching at the 6th Primary School in Kolín, later moving to the 5th Primary School, where she taught until her retirement. Her nephew is Martin Mejstřík, the leader of the student protests in 1989.