Blanka Budková

* 1939

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  • "And we asked them, 'Why did you come here?' - 'Well, to save you.' - 'Why? From what? From what?' - 'Well, you had been attacked by the West Germans.' I said, 'There's no threat here. There's no war here.' - 'No, they told us this, we're going to help you.' So it was clear that there was no point in talking to them, that they were baffled."

  • "Address: president Antonín Zápotocký, Prague Castle. What else could I make up at the time, I didn't know the address. I didn't even write the return address on the back. What a stupid 14-year-old girl. And I remember the beginning, when I addressed him: 'Mr President, I address you as head of state, because you will explain it to me. Why, when in school they tell us that in this people's democratic republic and [in this system] that they're fighting for, everybody has the right to an education and a job. Why don't I have that right to education?'"

  • "Mummy and Daddy left for Prague by train. There - I don't know why they thought of it, it was probably the closest to the station - the Church of Our Lady of the Snows. And there they asked the parish priest to marry them. They told him roughly why, what was the problem. The parish priest got a church keeper and some other old lady who went there to pray, and they were their witnesses. So they got married, spend some moeny - they went to the Koruna snack bar, which already existed then, and had tripe soup and a roll and went home."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Vrbová Lhota, 13.03.2024

    (audio)
    délka: 01:52:02
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
  • 2

    Hradec Králové, 08.01.2025

    (audio)
    délka: 02:39:27
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - HRK REG ED
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

Women were crying, men were cursing, it was when the Soviet tanks came

Blanka Budková, 1957
Blanka Budková, 1957
zdroj: Witness´s archive

Blanka Budková was born on 1 August 1939 in Vrbová Lhota. Her mother Anna came from a family of a medium-rich farmer, her father Josef Kukla belonged to the poor. Her mother‘s family did not support the relationship, and so their marriage took place secretly, only in the presence of strangers as witnesses. They had to work on their own, without any help. Even so, they managed to create a nice home and a self-sufficient farm for their children. In 1952, however, the farm was confiscated. This and other hardships led to Anna Kuklová‘s suicide. Blanka Budková graduated from the Faculty of Education in Prague, majoring in Czech language and physical education. She worked as a teacher all her professional life, in 1971 she started teaching in Poděbrady, where she remained for the rest of her professional career. She married Bedřich Budka in 1968 and in 1969 they had a son. She brought up not only him, but also her husband‘s son from his first marriage. Together with her husband, they expressed a negative attitude towards the occupation in 1968. In the 1980s, she and her husband were among the first beagle breeders. After the fall of the communist regime, she applied for her parents‘ fields to be returned to her as part of the restitution.