Agathe Széchényi

* 1962

  • „First, my father, his uncle and his brother were imprisoned in a cellar, there were the three of them. They did not know whether they would survive or whether they would be shot. And suddenly, drunk soldiers came and took them out of hte cellar and ordered them to stand at a wall. Soldiers with guns started to shoot, not at them but around them, and they were laughing. Then they went to drink to a wine cellar. At that moment, my father, uncle and brother decided that they had to escape. They had one salami and some bread and they were helped by their former employees, farmers from the surrounding villages, in their escape. Those knew that they were in the castle and one of them told my father to go outside in the night, that they would find help, that they would be hidden in the farmers’ homes. And that’s what happened. Those villagers were in danger for helping the aristocracy who were considered the enemies of the people. This way, they got to the town of Pécs where they hid in the bishop’s house. And from there, they got to Austria.“

  • „She was the daughter of my aunt, Sophie von Auersperg, and they lived in Hejnice. During the war, Clothilde and her brother were still children and they were imprisoned without knowing whether their parents are still alive, where their siblings are, whether they would ever see them again. And they were imprisoned for pretty long. Many years later, Aunt Clothilde then lived in Italy, I met her when she was already retired and lived in Vienna. And one day, I asked her whether she would like to go to Frýdlant with us, that she could tell us something about the family history and she told me: ‘Agathe, please, understand that I cannot.’ She was really traumatised and she could not go. It must have been a horror, hell on Earth, how they had treated her.”

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Liberec, 05.07.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:01:00
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Noble lady still loves the Frýdlant area despite her aunt being imprisoned there during WWII

Agathe Széchényi as a second grade pupil. Portugal, 1969
Agathe Széchényi as a second grade pupil. Portugal, 1969
zdroj: archiv Agathe Széchényi

Agathe Maria, countess Széchényi von Sárvár-Felsővidék is a great-granddaughter of Franz Clam-Gallas who left an important imprint in the history of Frýdlant region. She was born on the 7th of June in 1962 in Lisbon to Christiane von Auersperg and Antal Széchenyi, scions of notable Austrian and Hungarian noble families. In 1975, she moved, along with her parents and two older brothers to Austria where they lived with Grandma Clam-Gallas for a year – Gabrielle von Auesperg was the fourth of seven daughters of Franz Clam-Gallas. Then they moved to Upper Austroa to the St. Martin castle where her father worked as a horse breeder and trainer in the stables of the Arco-Zinnenberg family. Agathe studied hotel hosekeeping in Salzburg and for all her life, she worked in hotels in Austria, London or Spain. Only after the fall of the Communist régime in Czechoslovakia, she was able to visit the Frýdlant region where her family owned the castles of Frýdlant, Lemberk and Grabštejn. Since 2013, she has been regularly visiting Hejnice where her ancestors founded a major convent and church. Her story shows the post-war lives of the Austrian noble families of Clam-Gallas and Auersperga and the Hungarina Széchenyis. In 2022, the witness lived in St. Martin in Austria.