Ing. Katarína Šimončičová

* 1948

  • "We watched, the evening of August 20 ... we watched the film "A Report on the Party and the Guests" by Jan Nemec. And I know we didn't really understand it at the time, but it took a very long time, probably until... maybe until midnight. And then we went to bed. And my uncle ran into the room at 6 in the morning: "Get up, the Russians have come!" And we didn't want to believe him, we told him to make fun of somebody else, he was always making jokes, and then when he once told the truth, no one believed him. Only, when he said in Hungarian: "Bejöttek az oroszok!" He and my mother had surname Orosz (Russian). We understood as if "ours" came, it was funny in that way. But then he persuaded us he is not joking, that we shall switch on the TV. Thus, we turned on the TV and we' ve seen that the Russians really came, we were maybe 8 km from the border and we wanted to go and look there with my brother. The soldiers were going there by the main road under Kralovsky Chlmec, we jumped on bikes and went. And the soldiers were there, unaware they had already crossed the border since it was almost like in Russia, and me and my brother, because Hermanova in television said, behave politely, no provocations, so we started to wave to the Russians (laughs) and they waved back. But then we looked at the people standing around us, and they were angry what are we doing, why are we waving at them, so we went home. Then mother told us we need to immediately catch a train and go to Kosice, since the father is there alone and we didn't know whether war isn't starting. We went there by train and the whole time tanks accompanied us, along the railroad. When we arrived home to Kosice, I said, I am going to town. And the parents, it was a fortune in misfortune, locked the house, took the key and told me I am going nowhere. And I asked why? They are shooting outside and I am at home. Such a big event! And that's why I am alive, our neighbour was shot on the same street, a sixteen-year-old boy. I was twenty, so... And in the morning, we wake up and in front of our house stood a tank, barrel aiming at us.... it was absolutely terrible."

  • We went skiing and there was no snow, so we had nothing to do and we were lying on those beds. Such a small room. We didn't need anything, it was enough that we were together. We talked through the week. But it was such...I recommend everyone to experience similar week with this Ms Vlasta, you can't even imagine it until you experience it. Once she told me, "Listen." I was in Bratislava for a few years, two years, maybe three. She says: "You have nothing to do here in Bratislava, you're bored here!" Well, I went to the cinema, to the theatre, things that weren't in Považská, but nothing more, maybe for walks or I don't know what. And she said: "I know such a group of people who run around Slovakia, they have shingles in their backpacks and sometimes they go and shuffle some wooden house, some granary, some hayloft and so. Do you want me to introduce you to them?"Of course, such people exist? They do it just like that, they don't even leave a ticket-that they've done it there. They finish and move on." Thus I get to know the conservationists and I was at the first meeting, 5.5. at five o'clock , it was the fifth anniversary of the section of protection of folk architecture. It was such an unreal meeting if you knew what a meeting it was like! Normal meeting of the basic organization number 6 every month, the first Thursday of the month. And I was at the place where poor Vlado Bednár recited a poem about Mortimer, it was a former mayor or as they were called at the time back in '82, the leader, chairman of the National Committee Martinák, who had Primate's Square paved, had the linden cut and paved. So Vlado Bednár composed such a derogatory poem for him about Mortimer, then Jano Budaj talked about how the monuments from the Ondrej's Cemetery are being stolen, they are going to be restored. Well, there were so many things together and now that ... tress are supposed to be cut in the Medical garden, and I've immediately shouted: “How! We'll get tied up! I've never heard of people being tied to trees, but somehow it flew out of me. And they said, "Yeah, you're ours!" And that was it. And I went with them. Two days later, I went to the first brigade to the mill in the Kvačianská valley.

  • Zuza Tatárová said: "Mr Kryl, could you then return to Mozart's house after the concert because Katka can't go out?"It was cold and snowing, and I was guarding the whole house, I watched the concert on the television. And he said he'll come, of course. And as I was watching, suddenly the telephone rang. Who isn't watching Kryl and makes calls? This can't be true, after many years, he's here in Bratislava! And some lady from Trnava calls, she came with her daughter from kindergarten and her husband locked them out, we cannot enter our flat, please, help us. And I asked her whether she knows who is she calling? Yes, you are public against violence and this is violence, so help me. And I said her, excuse me madam, and Kryl there and I couldn't listen to him and she was dealing with that, I told her to contact the police, that I am unable to help her from Bratislava, then she hung up, I didn't know what happened. Ok, I finished watching it. And then Kryl arrived. I had to take a sip of water, it isn't that easy. He sat opposite me, maybe 2 metres, took his guitar and asked what shall I play for you? I can't imagine what is it like, secretly listening to him for twenty- twenty-one years, he was here in 1969, twenty years in secret, and then suddenly he sits in front of you. And I said play me the blind girl, because, and now I have to weep, it isn't just like that. This blind girl was our republic, dazzled, blind, unaware of what's happening around her, closed by barbed wires. So he plays Blind girl for me, and then also Salome. I haven't realised what had happened. Because before that, when they told you, they would abolish the 4th article of the constitution, ok, they abolished it, but you don't perceive it on yourself. But when suddenly, a human sits close and sings what you wish for you, it was the most beautiful thing that could have happened to me in that period. Only later, when my son was born it was more... but before that, only Kryl. Young girls sat there, who were helping us, Zuza Fialova and others, there were asking why am I crying (laughs), I said, shut up, maybe you'll know one day, what does it mean, but I know why I am crying."

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    Bratislava, 13.02.2020

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Witness on the procession of May 1, 1982, Bratislava
Witness on the procession of May 1, 1982, Bratislava
zdroj: Osobný archív pamätníčky

Katarína Šimončičová was born on March 12, 1948, as Katarína Chlebáková, the eldest of three children. Originally from Kráľovsky Chlmec, she was born in the Košice maternity hospital. The family later moved to Košice and Katarína attended primary, secondary and also university there. In 1972, she successfully completed her studies at the Faculty of Metallurgy of the Technical University in Košice and began working in Považská Bystrica on the research of superconducting materials. 4 years later she moved to Bratislava and there continued her research at the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Thanks to her parents, she had a strong relationship with nature from an early age. In 1982, she joined the Basic Organization no. 6 of the Slovak Union for Nature and Landscape Protectors (SZOPK). She participated in union activities and helped publish their magazine „Internal Information“. In 1986, her daughter was born. SZOPK members played an important role in the formation of the VPN in November 1989. At the time of the revolution, Katarína was in charge of handling telephone calls at the VPN headquarters on Markušova Street in Bratislava. At the end of December 1989, her son was born. In the first post-November ‚89 elections, she ran for parliament for the VPN but wasn‘t elected. The disintegration of Czechoslovakia was very difficult for her and he still disagrees with it. In 2014, she became a member of the city and local council for Ružinov in Bratislava. In 2018, she again became a member of the local council for the Ružinov- Nivy. She has never interrupted her protection activities, she is still actively involved, especially in the protection of the environment of the capital city Bratislava. In 2013, he received the White Crow award for her work.