Helena Šebestová

* 1933

  • “They brought Mishka, an injured partisan to the Troják [tourist lodge]; my uncle used to help the partisans, so he was to take him to the second forest clearance up above Hošťálková that was called Niva. He put blankets and pillows on a smaller wagon; those were used to carry dung and had boards on the sides to keep it in. They put the partisan in the wagon and he went into the neighbours’ stable. They kept oxen there, and he borrowed them without telling anyone. The people were so aligned – they didn’t speak much and acted instead. He got the oxen and went to the Niva clearance. He took the partisan there; they treated him and the boy survived, as we learned later. Uncle got back home and the Nazis came and raided the house; they said someone had been shot and they saw bloody tracks. Thoughtfully, my uncle threw some logs onto the bloody blankets after he’d given the oxen back. They stored one-metre logs as firewood, and he covered the blood on the wagon with them. The Nazis searched everything but, thank God, found nothing.”

  • “I was standing in Národní Street and one man said: ‘Well, Gottwald has surely scored a failure today like never before.’ A guy with a badge approached him and said: ‘Show me your ID.’ The people around knew he was a secret policeman, so they circled him and the man escaped.”

  • “President Zápotocký repeatedly stated that our currency was strong. Then the currency reform hit the next day. The rate was 1:50 and I think 1:5 for amounts of up to 500; I don’t remember exactly. It was horrible, [people got] just a few pennies. People were robbed. And miners? My husband worked at the Šalamouna mine that was part of the Hlubina, which was close. You could see it if you took a tram towards the Frýdlant train station. I saw the miners on strike. The memory still gives me chills to this day. It was quiet. Light. A mine full of people, silent, and this anxiety in the air. We all lost money, anyone who had any. The currency reform was terrible.”

  • “On the fifth of May at seven in the morning, I remember it was a Saturday, we opened the window and heard some screaming. A local boy was riding a bicycle and calling: ‘Get the flags out, we’re free!’ He was wearing a tricolour and riding the bike. When he was riding back towards Troják, the Nazis shot him. That was it. As I said, my brother [Jan] captured 40 Nazis in the hollow during liberation.”

  • “One night, about four partisans came to the Troják [tourist lodge], and it was raining. They hanged their ammunition belts on the stove to dry. There is this little kitchen behind the pub. At daybreak, Nazis were banging at the door, saying they saw muddy footprints and so there must be partisans inside. My grandmother saved everyone. She said, ‘Gentlemen, there is nobody here.’ There was a cellar behind the kitchen, under a wooden floor lid. The partisans threw the ammunition in and then they hid in there. They put the lid on and aunt or uncle put a large pot on the lid. The Nazis searched the entire Troják; by then, an annex had been added, so it was quite large. There were beer cellars accessible from the corridor, and a loft and rooms upstairs. They searched it all but found no one. In fact, my grandmother saved the house from being burned to the ground.”

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    Kroměříž, 07.11.2019

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    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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We lived in constant stress and fear during the war

Helena Šebestová, Prague, 1948
Helena Šebestová, Prague, 1948
zdroj: Soukromý archiv Heleny Šebestové

Helena Šebestová, née Kovářová, was born in Hošťálková in east Moravia on 29 June 1933. From an early age, she helped her parents Jan and Rozálie on their family farm. Her childhood during the Protectorate was initially carefree and full of games, but later on she feared the gestapo that had an office in the village and was quick to arrest locals and others. In early May 1945 she experienced intense fighting between the Wehrmacht and partisans in her village. After the war, she witnessed killed citizens and the cruel treatment of Nazi prisoners. She spent the 1947–1948 period in Prague as a governess. She experienced the events connected with the coup of February 1948 and in June 1948 she witnessed the XI. national Sokol rally march during which people openly voiced their protests against the upcoming communist dictatorship. She worked for the Jas shoemaking company from 1948. In 1953 she witnessed a protest against the currency reform in Ostrava. She married waiter Jan Šebesta the same year, moved with him to his birthplace in Němčice nad Hanou and had two children with him, daughter Helena and son Vladimír. From the early 1960s to retirement, she worked at the Local National Committee (MNV) as an office worker and the head of services. She lived in Němčice nad Hanou in 2021.