Anna Srbová

* 1941

  • "That Veverka was this fifty-five-year-old, solid, you would say normal, man. Until he started drinking. When he drank, he got totally drunk, nothing could be done about it. Otherwise he was quite hard-working. But we couldn't let someone drunk into that home of St. Francis, because you don't know, what it would do to him. And this was somewhere around Halloween, or the beginning of November. And Veverka got drunk again and they didn't let him sleep over at that home of St. Francis. And because I used to come and play for those Franciscans, I always had them by my left hand, and so Veverka said: 'Hmmm, cold...' It was November, this biting cold. 'And they didn't let me in there.' And I told him: 'You know, they can't help you, nothing can be done about that. But that friend of yours, Bohdan, who lives in Lobzy, try and see, if he wouldn't let you sleep over.' Well and Veverka went to Lobzy to go see his friend Bohdan. His friend Bohdan was in the hospital, but he lived on the ground floor. Veverka hooked the window open and settled into bed. But the neighbour was looking at him, and so the police came, took him out of bed, and took him to the station. 'How did you think of doing that?' Well and he said, that the director of the charity had advised him to it. They called me, this was Saturday evening, and they called me Sunday morning. I went to play in Lobzy, that they will come for me, that they need to interrogate me. I told them: 'Don't drive here, I will actually get over there, once I finish playing this set.' And so I finished playing, drove there, we explained everything to each other there - how it actually was. They let us go and everything was alright."

  • "I went to one meeting to transcribe it, and when we were later rewriting from that stenography into the typewriter, then I managed to write, that the state business will be administered be the state band [of hooligans] - instead of bank. And it was this really horrible mistyping. And they even came to school because of it. But Mr. Principal Spousta, who had taught it to us, stood up very nicely for me, because anyone who ever taught typing on a typewriter with all ten fingers knows, that D and K are both typed with the third finger. And to mistake the right and left hand, everyone knows that can happen."

  • "When the Americans were leaving Plzeň, Harmon was the general here. And back then they sang a song, I knew it from that sister of mine: 'Goodbye, goodbye, oh what a sad thing it is, when a young man has to say goodbye to a sweet doll. They simply won't be anymore, inviting Czech girls, the brave boys from Mississippi, they won't be riding them in jeeps, giving them sweets. Mr. General Harmon, he became dear to all those here, in Plzeň cries, sobs, sighs, for Harmon the harmonious, why didn't he stay here for us."

  • "I was this plump, blonde baroque little angel, because I was only four years old. An adorable little girl. And our mother with the stroller and me was going to Kyšičák to meet the American army. We were all cheering, and one of the Americans, who was totally black, jumped up to my mom and wanted to hold me in his hands. He was absolutely delighted by this little blonde angel. And our mom held me by my legs, because she was worried about what would happen to me. And then later, because my sister Štěpánka went to that business school and so knew how to speak English. And so she talked with those soldiers, and so they started giving my dad cigarettes a us chocolate."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Plzeň, 21.09.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 01:07:19
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Plzeň, 07.10.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 46:58
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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For us faith was absolute must

Anna Srbová circa 1950
Anna Srbová circa 1950
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Anna Srbová was born on the 9th of June 1941 in Plzeň as the middle child. Her mother Barbora Kasalová came from a peasant family from Ejpovice, her father Bohumil Kasal worked as a lathe operator in Škodovy závody (Škoda Works). In April 1945 a large bomb fell beside their family house and so the family moved to Ejpovice to her mother‘s relatives. There the witness met American soldiers at the end of the war. In the year 1952 hher father died, and so five women lived in the house in Plzeň, in Doubravka: her grandmother, mother and the three sisters. They lived only from the widow and orphan pensions and the girls‘ welfare stipends. Exactly due to a financial side income, dinner or other benefits, the witness went to transcribe all possible meetings, including KSČ (Czechoslovak Communist Party) meetings. After finishing her studies at an industrial middle school she managed to grab work as an administrative work force in Škoda Works. As a secretary she lived through the events of the year 1968 and the following check-ups, even the Velvet Revolution in November 1989 In the year 1993 she became the director of Městská charita Plzeň (City Charity Plzeň), after going into retirement in the year 1997 she continued as assistant director. And she even continued to organize projects such as Tříkrálová sbírka (Three Kings Fundraiser), Anonymní psaní vězňům (Anonymous Writing to Prisoners) and coordinated volunteer aid. To this day (2021) she acts as an adoptive grandmother and plays the organ at mass.