Ludmila Kantorová

* 1941

  • "Suddenly, it was the twentieth, my sister and I had a camp patrol at about four o'clock at night. We heard a hum. It was already cold in the morning and I thought we were freezing here and someone was flying to the sea because the planes were flying over us like crazy. We didn't know what it was all about, but there was actually some heavier traffic, so we envied them. A brother ran out of the tent and said, 'They're here!' That was exactly from the twentieth to the twenty-first that we were occupied here. We packed everything in a hurry. We had no idea what would happen. For example, I had my children at our grandmother´s. So, we packed it up and destroyed the camp. I know the campfire was exactly at noon. It was being prepared for the evening when we were supposed to say goodbye to each other. But because of these circumstances, we had to do it this way. I remember adult men crying there. There was a gentleman who was a soldier, he seemed old enough to me, and he didn't bear it well at all. There was a terribly sad mood. So, we packed it up, sang the scout anthem, took off the flag."

  • "As the PTP (Auxiliary Technical Battalions) appeared, the soldiers with black shoulder boards, they had to complete a military service. Some were already at the age; I remember that they seemed old to me to be the soldiers. It was the 1950s. It was busy at our house. My mother's acquaintances from Vysoké Mýto were joining the army. For example, Father Schnitter came to our apartment, he even christened me in Vysoké Mýto, the Dominican Father Josef Kulhavý and others. They led their comrades-in-arms with guns. They saw no weapons, only shovels and pickaxes. Father Pohorský Jan of Vlašim, Father Lazar of Karlštejn, Father Jaro Lank of Salesian and others came. Sometimes there were ten of them. They had their tools hidden under our table in our room, that was a chalice and a paten. They served Holy Mass almost every day, taking turns at home. The chalice and paten were about four times smaller than normal. I could answer in Latin, I liked it. After Mass, we sat in the kitchen, we were talking, I also liked it. But I didn't understand it very much. My Mom was preparing some snacks. I was nine to ten years old, my brother was nineteen, my sister was eighteen. It was philosophical and I often did not understand, but I bravely watched."

  • "As for my father, I remember that we were going to the hospital in Litomyšl to see him. During the liberation of Vysoké Mýto, because his car was the only one buried in coal, he pulled it out and drove the supplies to the partisans somewhere near Myto. He had severe angina, untreated it, and caught inflammation of the heart muscle. He died at the age of forty-two. He was in Litomyšl, but then the brothers wanted to take him to Moravia. I remember that I went with them in an ambulance, that they would take him to Olomouc. There were pretty good doctors here. As they drove him, it was not an ambulance, but a green car, probably a military one. There they were heating it up with wood gas. He was having a hard time breathing there, so we all climbed out of the car into the air and he died. Above Třebová on the hill, it was called U Anči there, there is a pub standing till today, so he died there. So, we went to Olomouc with my dead dad. This is the beginning of our pilgrimage through Olomouc."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Olomouc, 05.04.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 01:53:45
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Olomouc, 12.04.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 56:27
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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It was a life many times terribly sad, but beautiful

A photo of that time, circa 1944
A photo of that time, circa 1944
zdroj: archive of the witness

Ludmila Kantorová was born on April 30, 1941 in Vysoké Mýto. Her father František Valert was a soldier in the government army and the family lived in barracks under the supervision of German soldiers. Ludmila watched the departure of German soldiers from the barracks and the arrival of the Red Army. Her father fell ill while helping the Partisans and died at the end of the war. Ludmila moved to Olomouc with her mother and siblings. Her mother passed on the Catholic faith to her and she was taking her to a monastery, which the Communists liquidated in 1950. Their house became an asylum for priests serving in the Auxiliary Technical Battalions in Olomouc. Ludmila studied religious education and because of that she could not attend a pedagogical school. She graduated as a laboratory assistant at a medical school and since 1959 she worked at the dermatology clinic of the Olomouc University Hospital. She married Lubomír Kantor, who was, like her, a scout after the war. After the renewal of scouting in 1968, she and her husband founded the 7th Olomouc Division. In August, she participated in the Jesenice Forest School, which ended prematurely due to the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops to Czechoslovakia. Her brother, cameraman František Valert, emigrated in 1969 and she only saw him once again. After re-banning scouting in 1970, she and her husband continued to secretly scout until 1989, when they were able to break out of illegality and continue scouting. She worked at the hospital until 1997, when she retired.