Irena Holoubková

* 1928

  • “They will certainly stop the broadcast from the post office. It will be only for a short time, because it is not possible to broadcast anything against the regime here. There is some space downstairs, it is a civil defence shelter for the entire district, and the broadcast can be done from there. But I am not authorized to let you in and we are not allowed to use it. Call the regional civil defence chief in Brno and ask him if he allows us to broadcast from here. My husband called him and the civil defence chief began yelling at him: ‘How dare you ask?! It can be used only in emergency situations for the country!’ My husband gathered courage and argued with him: ‘And this is not an emergency for our country?! You think everything is fine if they are occupying us?’ The chief didn’t say anything and he allowed him to use the facility, but only for a limited time as long as the civil defence didn’t need to use it. Mr. Švastal then said that this was no way and he advised my husband to call the ministry of defense instead and request a mobile transmitter. My husband had not been in the army, and he didn’t like the idea, but he eventually called the ministry. It was actually the best thing he could do, because the military officer whom he spoke to told him that he would ask about it. After a while he called back and told my husband that the Highland region was not under the radio coverage and that they would be therefore happy to send a mobile radio transmitter to us.”

  • “All people were calling us and assuring us that they would continue working. They were all giving us guarantees that they would stay in their workplaces and keep working. Bakers assured us that they would bake bread days and nights and that people need not worry, there would be enough bread. The people from the dairy promised the same. Kindergartens said that they would remain open. That they would care for the children for as along as needed. There was a great surge of patriotism and everyone strove to do more than they had to. But now, we only argue like crazy.”

  • “My all thought that there could be nothing better. We all worked as hard as we could. We tried so hard to build the country, to give it a purpose. In the Communist Party, we too admired the French ideals of equality, liberty and brotherhood. The promises were great. Social differences were to be erased. Eventually, everything went so terribly wrong that we could not even understand it. There was nothing else to do. One had to remain in the Party, because otherwise you would not be able to work nor do anything for anyone. We limited our activity to going to meetings and paying our members’ fees. I didn’t give guidance to anybody. I didn’t hold any lectures. I told them that I had three kids and I didn’t have time for any activity. I was paying my fees and doing the required voluntary work.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Žďár nad Sázavou, 11.11.2014

    (audio)
    délka: 01:58:33
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

We got hit so many times that we began to think differently. But it was not possible to leave the Party

Irena Holoubková
Irena Holoubková
zdroj: archiv pamětnice

  Irena Holoubková, née Henkeová, was born September 29, 1928 in Čachovice near Nymburk. She spent a great portion of her childhood in Mladá Boleslav. Her mother tragically died there when Irena was eight years old. She experienced World War Two in Prague. On February 1, 1945, a bomb dropped by an Allied bomber completely destroyed their apartment two weeks after they had moved out. From 1948 she alternately worked as a reporter for the Czechoslovak Radio: at first in Prague, then in Jihlava and later in Žďár nad Sázavou. Together with her husband Luboš they broadcasted from there in August 1968, when Czechoslovakia became occupied by five armies of the Warsaw Pact states. Their radio broadcasting during that time came to represent August 1968 in the Ždár region. For ten days in a row they kept informing the public day and night, calming people down and transmitting their messages to the occupying armies. Their radio station was allegedly one of the last ones in Czechoslovakia that managed to continue broadcasting for so long. Both Irena and her husband were subsequently fired from their jobs for this activity. Irena consequently worked in several other jobs. For her entire life she was striving to help people around her. In the 1970s, for example, Irena and her husband helped to obtain passports and visas for Marie Ležáková and her daughter Eva and enabled them to travel to Canada to her husband Jan. Irena remembers that she felt a great relief after the fall of the communist regime, but she is frustrated from the current situation. Due to the persecution during the normalization era, she and her husband are receiving very low retirement allowance, which is not enough to cover their living expenses in the seniors‘ home in Žďár nad Sázavou. Irena‘s husband is blind and dependent on the help of his wife and the staff in the seniors‘ home.