Ester Pokorná

* 1939

  • “I only know that when Dad came home I didn’t know who he was. I said that he had a different head.” – “When he returned?” – “Yeah, skinny, white hair, a buzzcut, I told myself he had a different head. I didn’t want to go near him. I knew it was my mother because of her wart. When they were liberated. Dad by Americans and Mom by the Russians.” – “Do you know which concentration camps they were in?” – “Dad was on the Death March to Dachau, Mom was in Ravensbrück, Terezín. I’m not sure where else my father was.”

  • “One of the guards liked me, when I had my hands in my pockets because it was cold, when we were always walking, he gave me his hand, what a schmuck, yeah, humiliating. They probably made fun of later in the pub.” – “Can you remember any other adventures?” – “Yeah, some, like when they did the amnesty test: Get dressed fast, pack your stuff, and get out. And then immediately you had to get undressed again. Some of the Gypsies didn’t even bother with it and I did it all earnestly.” – “So, they teased you, that it was amnesty?” – “Yeah, they did, and not only us Witnesses, there weren’t any others there, I was I was alone, but everyone. I can’t remember. Thank God. They wouldn’t give me my medicine there. My teeth were fine, my back didn’t hurt – I managed. I was wet all day long, I worked in the fields in autumn, everything was wet. Even my work clothes were soaked through. But I didn’t get sick often. I know that Jirka sent me patches for back pain and they didn’t let me keep them. They were happy when Mr. Pokorný would send something. Most of all, even though I had a family, they were writing me, they wouldn’t let me have the letters, so I had no idea. I only read them, but then I cried because I didn’t get anything from the packages, just the letters, but some people there didn’t have anybody at all. Whenever I’d get a package, they eat it all up, but it was supposed to be mine.”

  • “I only remember that they wanted to sign some card for Stalin. And I didn’t do it. And they, the whole class, screamed at me: ‘Let them tremble in fear, the agitators!’ That’s how it was, the kids went with the crowd.” – “And why didn’t you sign it?” – “It was for his birthday, we don’t celebrate birthdays, nor Christmas, I can’t even remember anymore what actually happened.” – “It was something that your faith didn’t observe?” – “Yes. They called my mom. She came and they explained what had happened."

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    České Budějovice, 18.11.2019

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    délka: 51:40
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I had to pay for my hope

Michal and Gertruda Fezekaš were Jehovah’s Witnesses and raised their children in their faith. Both her mother and father were imprisoned in concentration camps starting at the end of 1943 till the end of the Second World War. Relatives took care of Ester during this period of time. After the death of Ester’s mother in 1948, her father remarried. After finishing school Ester began working in a bakery. In 1955 her younger brother Bohumil was born. Shortly afterwards, her father was put in prison for a year for practicing and spreading his faith. In 1964, the witness married Jiří Pokorný, himself also a follower of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and she moved with him to České Budějovice. There she got a job working in a paper press. Starting in the beginning of the 1970s, the Pokorný family was monitored and investigated by the State Security because of their religious beliefs. Her husband Jiří served a half-year prison sentence in 1977. Ten years later, Ester was locked up for seven months. After the events of 1989, both were rehabilitated. In 2019 Ester Pokorná was living alone in her house in České Budějovice.