Jitka Jachninová

* 1929

  • "It was a great job, I loved it and I remember sometimes discovering things that I myself was amazed were possible. For example, I came up with dance courses for the hearing impaired and it worked. Those people couldn't hear and they danced very well. Because the orchestra, the music that was playing, had to stand on the floor - preferably bass and other resonant, vibrating instruments. They were catching it up with their feet and learned all the dances perfectly. That was really rewarding and innovative work, which I enjoyed."

  • "President Havel was then a young man serving his military service at the airport in České Budějovice. He was already predisposed to literature. There was an artistic competition at the army at that time. There was singing, dancing, theatre. He came up with the idea of playing theatre at the airport. He chose a group and they were rehearsing the play. My husband was a culture worker at that time who was in charge of leisure time art activities, also military ones, because there were various festivals and competitions. He knew there was a theatre being performed, they knew that my husband was able to advise them, so he started going to that airport. Well, one day, they also came to us because we had almost the first television set in the house, about four young men and among them a certain Václav Havel, I don't know whether he had a rank or not. They were sitting on the floor, watching TV, and it was awfully nice. I like, I really like to remember it. We were young, everything was going well, they got tea and we had a good time."

  • "My uncle Dr. Jan Šanda was a priest. As a young man, a chaplain, he lived and worked in Rábí, which is the Pilsen region, and later he came to Bernartice. By then he was already a parish priest. He was a very competent man who wrote plays, books and above all he was a very patriotic and selfless man. It was after the assassination of Heydrich, and near Bernartice a hidden radio was overheard. The Germans immediately started moving and went to exterminate Bernartice. However, my uncle was warned and immediately called all the villagers together, gathered them in the church, locked it and didn't let anyone in, which was a touchy matter. Anyway, the Germans are great Catholics, so they left without any conflict or punishment of the villagers. However, my uncle paid for it by his stay in Dachau, from where, surprisingly, he returned to Bernartice safe and sound. He was promoted and appointed a canon in České Budějovice."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    České Budějovice, 12.10.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 01:01:22
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    České Budějovice, 18.11.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 31:16
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

The occupation of Czechoslovakia marked the complete degradation of our family

Jitka Jachninová, 1970s
Jitka Jachninová, 1970s
zdroj: Witness´s archive

Jitka Jachninová, née Šandová, was born on 5 December 1929 in Prague as a daughter of JUDr. František Šanda, a high-ranking official in the First Republic state administration. Her mother, Jarmila Šandová, was a housewife. From an early age Jitka was interested in art, especially in music. During the German occupation, her father was arrested and imprisoned in the Small Fortress in Terezín. At that time the family had to move out of their apartment into temporary lodgings. At the end of the war, she witnessed the bombing of České Budějovice. After the war, the family experienced a brief period of social rise, when the witness´ father became the head of the office of the district national committee and the chief executive of the political administration in České Budějovice. This stage was ended by the communist coup in February 1948. During the next period of working-class rule, the family was persecuted. In 1956, the witness met her future husband, the recognized dramaturg, film scholar and journalist Boris Jachnin (1932 - 2011). By his side, being a cultural and educational worker, she successfully devoted herself to her beloved culture professionally. Jitka Jachninová was not only her husband‘s life partner and supporter, but also a collaborator in the cultural field. Jitka Jachninová had two children with her husband and was living in České Budějovice at the time of the interview (2021).