Božena Csoroszová

* 1942

  • "On the 21st, we heard on the radio what was going on. We had bought a camera earlier in Sochi and also a transistor radio. I had a hysterical fit. I was afraid we wouldn't come home. My daughter was with my parents. Thank God we flew out on August 30. We arrived in Prague and at the airport we saw a lot of foreign soldiers. It was terrible. We quickly got on the train and went home. The next day we went to my parents' house. My daughter said to me: 'Mummy, I thought I would never see you again...' It must have been terrible for my mother too. My brother was in the compulsory military service, we were there [in the Soviet Union]. In the evening we saw tanks driving and in the morning we saw the signs Kolder, Biľak on the housing estate and there was a noose next to it."

  • "My parents joined the party [the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia] after the war. They joined out of conviction, they wanted us to have a better life. Years later, one was horrified at what was happening. I remember a huge board on the outside of the window with Gottwald and Stalin. Women were making paper flowers and decorating everything. And there was a parade. We lived in it. And then you learned what Stalin had done. Even my husband's oldest brother was in the gulag after the war. He didn't come back until 1949. One hundred and twenty went there and only fifteen came back. He never talked about it. I didn't find out until later."

  • "I was a goose girl. We also kept pigs and rabbits. My aunt had a pig and chickens. One spring we had goslings hatching. Then my mother put them in the pigsty. I was maybe nine or ten years old. Mommy says to me: 'Boženka, put the little goslings in the basket.' So I started to take them out, but the goose protected them. She jumped on my back, scratched me and pecked me. I cried for help. Then I used to go herding them in Stromovka park, which is now the entrance to the zoo, and on up to the hill where the pond was. I'll tell you, we didn't have everything, but we were humble and enjoyed everything. Today the young are spoiled."

  • The witness sings a sample of the miners' anthem and then another miners' song in the Cieszyn Silesian dialect.

  • "What is your earliest childhood memory?" - "Earliest? When I was little, my mother used to sing Osiřelo dítě [The Orphan Child – trans.] to me. It was sad. I didn't remember it until years later. And I remember in fourth or fifth grade we learned the Chinese national anthem. I still know it to this day." – "Then sing it for us." – "I can't sing anymore. But I'll try." (Sings a bit of the Chinese national anthem.)

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Ostrava, 20.02.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 01:28:07
  • 2

    Ostrava, 27.02.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 57:30
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

Life in the mining colony was simple, primitive, but very nice

Božena Csoroszová / about 1954
Božena Csoroszová / about 1954
zdroj: Archiv pamětnice

Božena Csoroszová was born Veverková on 12 December 1942 in Ostrava-Heřmanice. She grew up in the local mining colony of Petr Bezruč Mine. Her grandfather, father and later her brothers and husband worked in the black coal mines in the Ostrava-Karviná district. She trained as a textile saleswoman and worked in textile and haberdashery shops all her life. She lived in Ostrava-Poruba with her husband of Hungarian origin, who came from south-eastern Slovakia. At the time of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968, she and her husband were on holiday at the Black Sea in the Soviet Union. She experienced intense fear that she would not be able to return home to her daughter and parents. In 2023 she was living as a widow in Ostrava-Poruba.