Svatava Dušková

* 1943

  • "I just couldn't get into the house once. Because I got stuck there [in Prague] at ten o'clock in the evening and I couldn't get to the night express, I was afraid. The phone was torn off, it was normal back then that the headphones just didn't stay in the booth. And the bell didn't work on the house, the caretaker no longer existed then. Even though there was a bell, I could press it as much as possible, but it did not work. And a scaffolding was built next to the house because they were doing the facade. And I brought a trash can. Because the ladder was up there. So, I brought a trash can and with that school bag I climbed up to the ground floor. And every time someone walked by, I leaned against the wall so they wouldn't shout. They were on the second floor with a mezzanine, so I had to climb three floors like this. And then I found their bedroom and kitchen, and then I was going around it so I wouldn't knock on someone else. Well, it was open in the kitchen, because my cousin had to have cold air for sleeping 'like in Riegrák', as my uncle always said. So, I called at him there, and he was sleeping. So, I called out to him there, 'Zbynek, Zbynek!' He sat down and he looked at the door and said, 'What is it?' And I said, 'I'm in the window.' he helped me inside. That was stupid, because there was a good 50 inches space between the scaffolding and the house, so they could make the facade. So, I had to overcome it somehow. And then I came to the apartment, with the court shoes. Well, I still had court shoes, I held that in my hand. And then I came there. My aunt had her feet in the bath, looking at me like at a ghost. Well, my cousin said the next day at work that I was crawling out the window like that. And then I married his boss. And this story was even rumored. As I was guiding in the museum, a man came in and said, 'I worked with your cousin and he had a cousin who was climbing the scaffolding.' And I said to him, 'It was me!' One has to keep some humor, because otherwise one would probably have to despair. "

  • "I didn't know what was going on in Prague at all, because I lived in Spořilov and the tanks just passed there. Nothing much was happening in that housing estate. The only thing was that the Russians were bothering everyone there in that housing estate. There were some women with prams, there was even a Russian among them, and they started to scare them there. The housing estate was under construction, and it there that the woods were built, the woods to which the blinds were screwed. And it hammers with such a... it makes a terrible sound. And now the bangs were coming from those houses, and the soldiers were terrified. And they started with those guns there and to the mothers. Well, it was just absolutely hilarious. I felt rather sorry for the soldiers because it was August and it was cold. And those soldiers were small, because they only took small people to the tanks to fit in there. And they wore such thin clothes, such as linen. They must have been cold, but I felt completely sorry for them. He was standing at the corner, they might have forgotten him there, one of the navigators. And now he was standing there with the navigator, and people were gathering around him, saying, 'He, poor thing, has nothing to eat,' and they brought him coffee in a can. That's how bad we were to them. And another said, 'Don't eat it, it's poisoned.' Well, that's how crazy people went. And then we learned that they would not return home at all. So that they can't talk about what wasn't here. Because they were here to suppress the revolution, and we welcomed them here with a can of coffee. It really was twisted. They are still sure how they saved it all here."

  • "So, my dad, to make a lot of money, because he blamed himself badly that we were suffering and not eating ... That was on every visit: 'And will you eat? And you will you eat?' And my mother said, 'Yes, I for to lunches.' And I disagreed a bit. And my dad thought that my mom does not eat or that she does not eat enough and he started to cry. We had to leave immediately! We were there for five minutes, we went to the other end of the republic, and they made us leave because my dad started to cry. Then, my mother blamed me a little, but then she said, 'Well, I can't blame you, you were telling the truth.' So, it was like that. A visit to the other end of the republic for five minutes ... "

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    Plzeň, 20.07.2021

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    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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The people around were amazing, except for the dossier people who ruined our lives

Svatava Dušková
Svatava Dušková
zdroj: archive of the witness

Svatava Dušková was born on April 26, 1943 in Pilsen. Her mother Růžena Mádrová and her father Miloš Mádr worked as teachers of the Czech language and physical education. She grew up with her older brother Miloš in a pleasant home environment. Her carefree childhood ended in December 1951, when her father Miloš Mádr was detained directly at work and subsequently sentenced in a fabricated trial to twelve years in prison for treason. Her mother lost her job and the apartment, and the family lived in modest conditions in a shared household with their grandparents. Due to the poor dossier profile, the witness was unable to attend an industrial high school and so she trained to be a miller. In the third year of her studies, she started practical training at the steam mill in Pilsen, in Prokopova Street. The witness continued to dream about distance learning, which was promised to her by the relevant authorities under the condition that she would establish the Czechoslovak Youth Union at her workplace. Due to the fact that she fulfilled the condition, had excellent grades and was praised at work, she entered the industrial school in Pardubice remotely. Her father Miloš Mádr was released on amnesty in 1960. The witness got married and lived in Prague, where she spent 24 years of her life. She lived through the events in Prague in August 1968. She and her husband had two children, but the marriage ended in divorce, after which she returned to Pilsen to live with her family. According to her, she lived the most beautiful part of her life in Pilsen by guiding in the Ethnographic Museum of the Pilsen Region. In 2021 she lived in Pilsen.