Elfriede Šulková

* 1940

  • "So they said to my grandfather, 'Fotr, du alles einpacken.' As if to wrap everything up to take us to the border. It was a short walk only from here to Úterý. There was a demarcation line, there was a border. And the second time he came with the tank, he said, 'Fotr, du nichts einpacken.' That he should not pack anything. And Grandpa said, 'I'm not going anywhere, I'll stay here, I haven't hurt anyone, so I'll be here.' And he said, 'Damn it, Fotr, Shade, Shade. You get out of the barracks and the Czechs rein. 'And Grandpa said,' You're some kind of smart.' And before he left with the tank, he tore it off his sleeve – there was a tiger there, I think - so he took it off and gave it to the grandfather to keep in memory. So it was nice of them. And then they were not known. So it was nice of them. And then they were not to be known."

  • "And otherwise here… Even here there was a pretty big communist and so were his boys. And one was quite a high rank with the police. And when my aunt - my mother's sister - had to leave, a man fell in the war. He did not fall, he remained in captivity in Germany after the war. And my aunt, because she carried his name, had to follow him. And he was a dentist, and he wanted to see if she could bring dental books along with her or certain things he might need. So Grandma told the policeman, and he went to the square in Nečtiny, where those who had been evicted were gathering. He stepped to the trunk and said, 'Show me what you got there.' So his aunt showed him, and when the commission came, he said, 'It's checked, there's nothing there.' He sealed it and she could export it. It was among them, even though he was a communist or his father's… There were some bright exceptions too. ’”

  • "And my husband had to join the Communist Party. Otherwise you won't get points for the apartment, so he went… And then he argued with them for he wouldn't pay such marks that were too expensive, so they expelled him. They could fire him, but expelling him was just the worst offense! And when Ríša started school, he wanted to go to forestry school. He didn't get it, and when we went to ask why they didn't take him, well, Dad was expelled from the party. And a certain madame at the office in Škoda, in Tylovka, said: 'He must have been a subversive element.' "

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Plachtín, 25.05.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 01:33:31
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

They put it all together. Germans are Germans…

Elfriede Šulková in 2021
Elfriede Šulková in 2021
zdroj: Post Bellum

Elfriede Šulková was born on February 7, 1940 in Plachtín near Nečtin, northwest of Pilsen. He comes from a German-speaking family. Her father was taken to the German navy and died in 1945 due to a ship sinking. The family was not deported because the witness‘s grandfather was a Social Democrat before the war, but they had to leave their house. The witness studied at a medical high school, from which she was expelled after two years, and national prejudices probably also played a role in her departure. She moved to Pilsen and joined Škoda‘s plants in Pilsen, where she worked in an office. After maternity leave, she was in charge of taking people and equipment up and down by freight elevator in a carpentry shop. Her mother decided to move to Germany in 1966, after the August occupation of 1968, her brother also left for Germany. The witness‘s husband joined the Communist Party, but after a while he was expelled and the children could not study any further. The witness‘s son Richard renewed the association of Germans living in Bohemia, with which he organizes cultural events. In 2021, Elfriede Šulková lived in her birth house in Plachtín, which she had to buy back.