Radana Květová

* 1940

  • "When we heard the terrible noise from helicopters at four in the morning on 21 August, I immediately knew it was the Russians. At that time, our friends, a couple from London, stayed with us. I was completely terrified and had a nervous breakdown - I couldn't breathe and felt sick. They cut the phone connection, and we couldn't call anywhere. Honza went to the embassy to find out how our guests could get home. On the way there, he saw how a convoy of cars of foreigners who happened to be in Prague was forming and was about to leave for the western border. At the embassy, Honza was told he must immediately tell our friends to join the convoy. It was such a hoot that we didn't even get to say goodbye to them. And I was so shocked and scared that I wanted to put my two-year-old Terezka into the car with them, but my husband talked me out of it. Our friends joined the convoy at the last minute and luckily got out."

  • "My friends and I didn't have money or a car, so we hitchhiked on trips from Prague. That is how we got to Slapy once. By evening we got hungry. We saw a training center, so we went there and asked if they would sell us some food. We saw a lot of young guys there and wondered what it was. They were just about to have dinner and invited us to sit with them. We talked, and it later became clear that they were apprentices. They joined State Security and had training at Slapy. They boasted to us: 'We are doing very well! Wouldn't you like to join us?' One even offered to meet us at Charles Square. They told us all the benefits we could get: We would have a free cinema, swimming pool and I don't know what else. We didn't reveal our names or what school we studied at. We each made something up. By then, it was already dark, and they suggested we could spend the night at their place in a spare room. But then around ten o'clock they started knocking on us, we jumped out of the window and ran away. We ended up sleeping in a mow and were glad to get out of there."

  • "Jožek's uncle David was in the London provisional government, and there was tremendous glory when he and Beneš returned. Aunt Věra and I went to welcome the parade to the Charles Bridge. My aunt had her beautiful costume, and I wore a boyish costume after my brother. I was completely blown away by it, and I really liked the sight."

  • "During the war, my family and I were on our way to Lochovice. Fortunately, uncle Láďa was with us. He studied at a military school and spoke perfect German. The driving was slow, it was dark, the lights of the cars had to be dimmed, and we crashed into marching German soldiers. Three soldiers jumped on our hood. Their officer came and started yelling. Uncle Laďa got out and started shouting at him that the last row of soldiers did not have lighting, which was their duty. And he convinced him! The officer fell silent, and nothing happened. Our driver and the rest of us were terrified. It was an unforgettable experience."

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Třeboň, 18.09.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 02:27:45
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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    Třeboň, 19.09.2021

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    délka: 01:11:39
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I myself was forbidden many things, so at least I supported my husband

Radana Květová, 1948
Radana Květová, 1948
zdroj: witness archive

Radana Květová was born on 3 February 1940 in Prague as the third child of Josefina and Jaromír Fürst. The Fürsts used to belong to the honorarium of the First Republic: the family owned a paper mill in Lochovice, and Radana‘s uncle Ladislav Fürst married the daughter of a prominent national economist Karel Engliš Věra. Her father‘s sister married the politician Josef David. After 1948, the family lost property and social status and lived in material poverty. In 1949, Radana‘s father got arrested without any reason or trial. The family found themselves without funds, and it was only after three months that they learned that he was being held in a correctional labor camp in Svatý Jan pod Skalou. They released the father from forced labor after a year. Bohumil Hrabal used to work in the yard of the house where Radana spent her childhood. After graduating from the Higher School of Economics in Resslová Street in 1958, Radana got assigned to the accounting department of the Barrandov film studios, where she worked with a short break until the mid-1960s. Unlike her husband, Jan Květ Jr., she could not study at university or devote herself to any higher or more exposed career, so she worked in administrative positions. She and her husband participated in the revolutionary events in Třebon in 1989.