Marie Stárková

* 1935

  • “Then Mr Golat, also a National Socialist and master in Vítkovice, was locked up. Then Mr Olšanský, a cement maker, got arrested because he had a small factory. So they nationalized him and arrested him. Then his neighbour Alois Petr was locked up - he was a cabinetmaker - a National Socialist, and a Sokol member. Then Buchal was locked up. He and Horáková were hanged. Then Míra Laryš, also a national socialist, was arrested, then Mr Suchánek, Mr Bezruč, the policeman, and another policeman Brázdil. Then the gentleman from the last house in Hrabová, also a National Socialist, was locked up. That's how it went here in Hrabová.”

  • "Once, the director was no longer Dr Pošta nor engineer Březina, but Comrade Josef Kalabus, the biggest hard worker in Vítkovice. He invited the masters and technicians to a meeting every morning to keep track of things. Once my master came, he was locked up for six years. I don't know in which concentration camp. We sat across from each other, we had a window there, on the blast furnace, it's not there anymore, the trams run there now. He sat down at the table, put his head in his hands and cried. I said, 'Master, why are you crying?' He said nothing. And I: 'Master, what's wrong with you, what happened?' Nothing. He was the same age as my dad. I went to him, I grabbed him by the shoulders. Nothing. So I sat opposite him. He suddenly straightened up and said: 'Maruška, if your dads knew why they were dying in the concentration camp, not one of them would have let themselves be locked up!'"

  • “On the thirtieth of April 1945, we were in a shelter at the neighbours', back then it was called a shelter, today it is called a cellar. A German soldier came. He spoke French. He wanted my father to repair a motorcycle, he knew how to do it. So he brought it in, and my dad looked at it and said there was no gas in it. He sent dad to the fire station. He knew they had gas there. He brought it, fixed it, and the soldier said he wanted to wash himself. The lady who lived there brought him a basin. He wanted soap. She also brought a towel. And the neighbour's daughter, who was in her twenties, said, "And isn't he missing toilet water too?" And he understood her. He said he was going to shoot us all. But eventually, it was settled, and he left. That was on the thirtieth of April.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Ostrava, 15.09.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:16:57
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Ostrava, 22.09.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:24:37
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

The neighbour wrote a testimonial and the son was supposed to feed the pigs

Portrait Marie Stárková, year 1954
Portrait Marie Stárková, year 1954
zdroj: Author of filming

Marie Stárková, née Lyčková, was born on April 29, 1935, in Ostrava. She lived with her parents in the city centre for a short time, and then the family moved to nearby Hrabová. He remembers the fear which reigned in Hrabová when several residents ended up in concentration camps. At the age of fifteen, she started working, delivering mail in the pipe tunnels of the Vítkovice ironworks, and then became a crane operator at the Prefa company. She perceived how life changed in connection with the rise of the communists to power. The State Security arrested several neighbours and acquaintances from Hrabová, many of which ended up in prison. She knew the family of Jan Buchal, sentenced to death in the trial of Milada Horáková. Her brother-in-law Jaroslav Starek was a political prisoner for five years. The State Security interrogated her too. In 2022, she lived in Hrabová near Ostrava.