Božena Majerová

I was born in Obecnice, where I lived with my parents until I was five. Then we moved to Pribram and I started going to the 1st primary school in the old part of town. After graduating from primary school, I entered the secondary general education school, which was the predecessor of today's grammar school.

I always liked working with children. I worked in children's organizations, went as a leader to children's camps, was an assistant trainer in the Sokol. Initially, I wanted to be a children's doctor, also inspired by the then head of the children's ward at the hospital in Pribram.

However, in the end I listened to my father, who reminded me that despite my excellent grades, I would not get into medicine, because our family had an imaginary black mark. My parents refused to join the party. And the idea of becoming a scientist was out of the question. So I decided to go to the Faculty of Education in České Budějovice, majoring in Russian language and history. Being a teacher was not my dream job, but I always enjoyed working with children.

I graduated from the faculty in 1968 and unfortunately, August 21 came. It was perhaps the worst day of my life so far. In the morning my brother came in from the night shift and woke us all up by shouting, "You are sleeping here and the Russians have occupied us!" It was a shock for all of us. I remember my mother saying, "Hurry up, get up. We have to buy some groceries!" So I was sent out to buy supplies. There were people everywhere and everyone wanted food, food, food.

When I got to the square, there were already armored cars. Mostly aimed at the building of the district committee of the Communist Party. It was unbelievable how fast it was going. When I walked down Pražská Street, there were military vehicles passing. People were running and squeezing against the walls. It was chaos, something terrible.

The soldiers settled in the area of today's stadium on Litavka. We went there to see it, of course. There were shouts like "Ivan, go home" and so on. My husband-to-be at that time, together with a neighbour, went to Prague that day to photograph the horror. I was worried about them, but fortunately they were unharmed. In the meantime, we were pasting posters around town with quotes from our poets to protest the occupation. Even today, I get goosebumps when I think of these memories.

In September I started teaching at the primary school in Březové Hory. Teaching the Russian language after the occupation, against which there was such an aversion, seemed at first completely impossible. I liked Russian culture, mostly architecture, but I must admit that the Soviet films that were being made at the time were absolutely unwatchable.