Emilie Pytelová

* 1931

  • "When I was about thirteen or fourteen years old, we had a sheep at home. So, I shorn the sheep, I made a little spindle, and there was a spinning wheel. So, I did all that and dyed it red and blue. I made a blue skirt and a red sweater. And I wore it to school because there was nothing to wear!"

  • “The Jewish woman, the mother of Erna, was walled up in the room for six whole years. They would always free her at night and spent an hour walking outside so that she enjoyed her life a little but otherwise she was locked up for six years. They only brought her food. However, a German knew it and he would always slaughter two pigs and gave one to him so that he would leave the Jewish woman locked in the room.”

  • “My favourite speciality was when my mum cut a slice of bread for me. It was really good because I only ate the inside of the bread and had the bread crusts left! It was like a salami to me, and it was my speciality – the bread crust.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Ruprechtov, 16.08.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 02:14:20
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Ruprechtov, 14.10.2022

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

Childhood in a whirl of national passions in the area of Těšín

Photo of Emilie Pytelová
Photo of Emilie Pytelová
zdroj: Witness´s archive

Emilie Pytelová née Bocková was born on 9 March 1931 in the village of Nýdek in Těšín Silesia, not far away from Polish borders. They spoke the Polish dialect at home, however, the family considered themselves Czechs. The Pytels were the black sheep among the citizens of Nýdek who in the majority felt like Poles. Ethnic discord peaked there in the autumn of 1938 when Poland annexed the area of Těšín while Czechoslovakia was recovering from the Munich shock. Part of the Pytel family had to escape and Polish officers evicted Emilie and her mom to a dugout shelter in a forest. Paradoxically, the beginning of WWII brought relief to the family because they were able to return home again. The only thing that spoiled the family‘s happiness was the fact that brother Janek was given Polish citizenship and was sent to forced labours in Germany. When the family managed to get him German citizenship, he was sent to the front. The last letter that the family received from him was from Stalingrad. He was believed to be missing since that time. After the war, Emilie Pytelová started to work in a field that attracted her since her childhood - she became a shoemaker in the nationalised Baťa factories (from 1949 called Svit). In Zlín (Gottwaldov from 1949) she met her future husband with whom she later moved to Ruprechtov in the area of Vyškov where she still lived in 2022.