“A German fired into the air and the grandmother fainted and fell to the ground… the commander heard in the village that there was shooting, so he ran over… and when he saw the grandmother on the ground, he thought she was dead… so he called off the Germans… well, that’s how we saved our livelihood.”
Stáhnout obrázek
Anna Krčmárová, née Petríková, was born in 1934 in eastern Slovakia, in Bukovec. She came from a Greek Catholic family of six children, and she herself was the fourth in line. Her paternal grandfather was originally from Poland and came to Slovak territory as an orphan looking for work. He later married here and decided to set up home here. Her mother‘s parents came from Potôček, not far from Anna‘s birthplace. Anička attended the local elementary school in Bukovec, which, however, was not one of the Slovak schools. It was a Russian school, where Slovak was taught only twice a week. Teaching was more or less simpler, as they often weeded in the garden or even the students had to look after the teacher‘s children. At the outbreak of World War II, Anna was already attending a middle-class school. She also had to interrupt school for a while because of the war, but she did not continue her studies later and finished her education by finishing primary school. During World War II, their house was largely burned down during a Russian air raid, so they had to move to the nearby village of Potôčky. Both Anička‘s family came into contact with German soldiers and partisans, whom they regularly helped. In return, they gave them information that the Germans were planning to burn the village and they were able to escape to the forest in time, saving their lives. The end of the war was marked by the insidious disease typhus, which probably affected everyone, but it was fatal for Anička‘s father, who succumbed to it. Since her mother was unable to take care of six children alone, Anna ended up in an orphanage for a year. Later, she went to help out as a nanny and housekeeper, in the family of a nurse in Stropkov. Since Anička‘s mother remarried and had two more children, she had to go to her sister‘s house in Michal nad Žitavou when she was growing up, where she helped her with the household again. From there, she later started working in the gramophone factory in Vrábľy. In 1953, Anička married Jerolín Krčmár from the aforementioned village. At that time, with a soldier, and later with a bricklayer, Anna began to live in his mother-in-law‘s house. Since their first son died when he was six months old, they decided in 1955 to move to Bratislava, where they both started working in Dimitrovka. In 1956, a healthy daughter, Daniela, was born to them, and later two more children, Jaroslav and Vierka. After maternity leave, Anna returned to Dimitrovka, where she had already joined the factory guard. She worked there for 25 years, and thus served with a weapon in hand. Anna officially retired at the age of 58, but she continued to earn extra money in addition to her pension until 1992. Since her mother-in-law became ill and needed to be taken care of, Anna and her husband took care of her. Later, she devoted herself mainly to gardening, embroidery, and occasionally helping with the grandchildren.