Anna Macková

* 1949

  • “My uncle returned, it was six o´clock. The bus went to Znojmo through Krhov at that time. It was one of a few buses which went through Krhov. And my mum was also supposed to return but did not come. That is why we expected she would return by the bus that went at nine o´clock but she did not come either. However, a doorbell rang. I went to open it and there were two men in long leather coats… I have felt a strong dislike for leather coats ever since. And another man from Krhov was with them and they were searching the place for the whole night. They were looking for my uncle´s manuscripts. I slept there in a hall where you could sleep only in a fur coat in winter. They did not take my uncle away until the morning. And I read in my uncle´s notes that I was holding him then and crying that I was all alone in the world.”

  • “When my dad got back, I was eleven years old. I was already a teenager. He loved me. I loved him too. However, I think we missed my childhood which we had not spent together. But we did not have a problem. Nevertheless, they had a relationship problem, I mean my mum and dad. It was because they did not learn to live together because their love had been fresh. And they got back together after eleven years after they had lived through difficult things. And I only retrospectively understood that they both thought their life had been harder. And they could not say to each other let us try to forget about things at least a bit and start over. That is why they both had mental issues because it was difficult to get back together. Moreover, my dad could not find a job because he was on parole for ten more years.”

  • “He [witness´s father] worked in the uranium mine and he was also in the storehouse where the uranium ore was packed. And he said that when he entered the hall, the levels of radiation were so high, he fainted. And it was the better option because most prisoners immediately had blood coming out of every orifice, of nose, mouth, and ears. And the only protection was a litre of milk per day. Or brown rats. When they started running away, it was clear that something was going on underground and the prisoners tried to get up from the underground quickly.”

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    Brno, 07.05.2021

    (audio)
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I want to truly forgive

Anna Macková at the hop harvest in 1966
Anna Macková at the hop harvest in 1966
zdroj: witness´s archive

Anna Macková, née Pecková, was born on 21 July 1949 in Jihlava. When she was only four months old, her father Alois Řídký was arrested for anti-state actions. He was sentenced to serve twenty-two years. He served the sentence in Jáchymov and a uranium mine in Příbram. He was released on parole in 1960. The communist regime also repeatedly imprisoned her granduncle, Christian priest Dominik Pecka for his allegedly harmful effect on the youth. Anna, who was nine years old at that time, was present at his second arrest. She remembers part of it only thanks to her granduncle´s notes. In fact, she has repressed some of the traumatic circumstances of his arrest to this day. The communist regime separated her parents when they were in love. When they got back together after her father´s release, it was hard for him to reconnect with his wife and daughter. The witness graduated from Electrical Engineering Secondary School. She took part in the distribution of anti-occupation leaflets in the summer of 1969 and she then faced interrogation at the State Security. She later got married and she and her two children were still considered the offspring of a political prisoner by the regime.