Lidmila Šulcová

* 1945

  • "They persuaded me when I was in Lev, so they told me that I was as the best apprentice at the time, as when I was studying. It is Mr. Vyšek who told them when they came that I was so ambitious and pünktlich for everything or how to say it, but I tried to be good or something. So they came to see me and asked me to join the Communist Party, and I said, 'No, no, no, no, no.' And Mr. Výšek said: ´No, she stays with her parents, who are religious and she wouldn't stand it.´ And it really worked like a miracle, and they haven't asked me about it ever again."

  • "My husband went to pick up the rings on August 21st; we had the rings made, and now he was riding a motorcycle and it was shooting in that square and now the rifles were around him and all that. He said, 'I felt only a little soul inside me. As I drove I saw those people shot down on the ground. 'Well, that was awful. He came home and was completely unhappy about it. And now it was hard for us too, because when we were doing the wedding, we needed to buy flour and various things, meat and some butter. It was nothing, because people bought everything and there was nothing available at all."

  • "They took the land away from them, and gave them another one, because he didn't want to go to the collective farm. He did not want to join the collective farm, so they gave him replacement land, but it was not at all so fertile, it was full of stones. Well, in short, when I was just a small girl, I was glad when I got potatoes for my nameday, when our people were plowing there, so you got there… a fire was made and potatoes were put on it and there were such roasts. and I really liked it. It wasn't like now that kids get such big presents; back then it was impossible."

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Rychnov u Jablonce nad Nisou, 04.11.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 01:08:42
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I prayed that they would no longer ask me to join the party

Lidmila on her wedding day
Lidmila on her wedding day
zdroj: archiv pamětnice

Lidmila Šulcová, née Vélová, was born on May 11, 1945 in Benešov near Semily. After the war, her parents got a house after the expelled Germans in Rádle near Jablonec nad Nisou. There they established a small farm, but during collectivization it was exchanged for a barren field. After the currency reform in 1953, the family lost their savings. Lidmila trained as a cook, worked in the U Zlatého lva restaurant and in the school canteen following maternity leave. In August 1968, she and her husband were married and struggled with food shortages due to the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Lidmila is a believer and an active member of the church all her life. During the normalization, she secretly met with other believers and has been taking care of the Rychnov church for more than forty years. In 2021 she lived in Rychnov near Jablonec nad Nisou.