Věra Jordánová

https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C4%9Bra_Jord%C3%A1nov%C3%A1
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https://www.memoryofnations.eu/cs/jordanova-vera-1928 - Věra Jordánová, née Nováková, was born on April 15, 1928 in Prague, but until the age of ten she grew up with her parents in Šternberk, Moravia. The family had to leave there in 1938 because the territory was annexed to the Sudetenland. Prague became her new home, where the witness still lives today. She graduated from grammar school here, later she studied at DAMU. As an actress, she worked in the theater in Liberec, where, among other things, she met her life partner Zdenek Procházka. Shortly after the birth of her daughter (Jana) in 1957, she received an offer of short-term cooperation with Czechoslovak Television as an assistant director. In the end, however, she remained in the public media of Czechoslovak Television until her retirement. She first became an assistant director, and after graduating from FAMU, she worked as a director of children's drama programs. She filmed dozens of fairy tales and productions, the most famous of which are Krkonoše fairy tales, the four-part series Jana Eyrová, Magic Rings. Show witness full story (Czech) - The work of the director and actress Věra Jordánová is primarily known to viewers of weekly TV fairy tales. She filmed dozens of them during her career at Czechoslovak Television, and she also has to her credit the only live evening drama of the Krkonošská fairy tale. These are linked to a somewhat disturbed normalization history, when the name of the author Božena Šimková had to be "covered" by her friend Podhrázska. Until the November revolution of 1989, only four people, including the witness, knew about the real author. However, other politically inappropriate artists, especially actors, also "hid" under her direction at the time of normalization. At one time, they were, for example, Jan Tříska or Rudolf Hrušínský.

Věra Jordánová, originally named Věra Nováková, was born on April 15, 1928 in Prague. Mom was an opera singer, she studied at Pivod's (Prague) opera school and a career at the Dresden Opera awaited her. "However, as soon as my mother in Dresden understood that work in the theater would definitely not be only about singing, she refused the engagement and returned to Prague. Until her marriage, she worked in the Slovak Trio, which promoted Slovak music." In Prague, she met the military doctor Rudolf Novák and married him. In 1926, the young couple acquired a permanent base in Šternberk, Moravia, where Dr. Rudolf Novák elected head of the military pulmonary sanatorium. Two years later, their daughter Věra was born. She herself remembers the years spent in Šternberk as "the lost paradise of her childhood". Lost because from 1935 the German majority here began to fall for Nazi propaganda and gradually joined Henlein's political party. "Through their actions, the Henleins destroyed the Czechoslovak Republic and made life miserable for us Czechs." With the Munich Agreement, Šternberk fell to the Sudetenland and the family had to quickly leave their home. Like many of her peers, she could not overcome this childhood grievance for a long time. "After the war, I vowed that I would never speak a single word of German again. In the end, however, I had to overcome this issue in Liberec. I met an older German couple here, who later became my close friends. My hostility to all things German has changed.”

THEY STABBED INTO THE CABINET WITH DAGGERS
After leaving Šternberk, the parents went to live with relatives in Prague. They managed to find an apartment in Dejvice, where the witness still lives. However, the father took the whole situation very badly. "He had to leave Olomouc as the last commander. He was a typical intellectual of the Masaryk Republic, an officer. He couldn't do anything and suffered greatly from it. He died in 1941." Although the mother received a pension from the father, living was difficult, only thanks to the cohesion of the family they managed to survive even such a difficult period as the Heydrichiad. “They stabbed bayonets into that closet here because they thought someone was hiding there. They used to go from house to house," the witness points to the built-in wardrobe in the other room and continues: "I go to Kobylis every year to the shooting range. Five Quintans from our school and the mother of one of them died there, and on June 3, 1942, my cousin and his pregnant wife were shot there. Guess she was 8 months pregnant!” However, not only these five classmates disappeared from the school desks, but also many Jewish children. The witness still remembers their faces and how Zuza Krausová had beautiful braids, I envied her. The last time I saw her was from the window of the tram at the fairgrounds, she was carrying a knapsack, and I said, look, it's Zuza Krausová. You see what a person remembers...” That is why the youth were so wild at the end of the war and immediately rushed to help, which was sometimes dangerous. After all, Czechoslovak Radio called for help from Prague. A branch of the Red Cross was opened on the corner of the street where the witness lives. Věra Jordánová and her friend at the time signed up immediately and became liaisons. In principle, however, they were sent to fairly safe places, the pair did not take part in any direct fighting. However, violence was ubiquitous at the time, and it was not always only on the part of the Germans. Only much later did she realize that "a lot of things weren't right, but they were understandable." She spent the summer and holidays of 1945 together with her classmates from the grammar school in the borderlands on the harvest. The youth, full of energy, wanted to contribute to the restoration of the republic.

A WHOLE LIFE WITHOUT A PARTY
The survivor graduated in 1947 and that same year she passed the exams for acting at the conservatory in Prague and also for art history at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. Very soon, however, she understood that if she were to devote herself properly to acting, she could not divide her concentration between two fields. In addition, the political situation in the country soon affected the study. In 1949, the witness continued her studies at DAMU, which was strongly left-leaning (Jiřina Švorcová also studied there at that time). Schools were generally purged. After the February coup, Věra's year decided on Alfréd Radok, an important Czech director, and his stay at the school. "Unfortunately, there were only a few of us who stood up for him. He himself later kept in touch with us and often talked to us about his work. I couldn't have had a better teacher.” These experiences therefore created a certain paradox, which the witness resolved by never joining any political party. It refers to itself as "of the center left" and admits a certain sympathy with the ideal of the Communist Party. However, he immediately adds that "she could not join this party because its activities showed criminal activities." The art department was also behind her name change. Until 1955, her official name was Věra Nováková. "It all started at the conservatory and then DAMU. There were three of us, Věra Nováková's students, and after half a year we were already confused, so the cantors advised us to use a pseudonym. I chose the surname from my mother's or grandmother's side. Even before I got married in 1955, I had my name officially changed."

Věra Jordánová, as at that time still a pseudonym, also appeared on the programs of the Liberec Regional Theater (today F. X. Šalda Theatre), where she went to work after completing her studies at DAMU in 1951. It was here that she met her later husband, fellow actor Zdenek Procházka. He came to the ensemble in 1952 and after two years of acquaintance came the marriage. In 1957, a daughter (Jana) was born to the young couple. "I wanted to be on maternity leave here in Prague because my mother was here. At that time, friends were looking for some help with organizational work at Czechoslovak Television, so they approached me with a request for a part-time job." as a promising new addition to the team. Immediately after the end of the part-time job, she was therefore offered a permanent job as a director's assistant with the prospect of independent work as a director under the condition that she graduated from FAMU, majoring in directing. Basically, from the beginning, Věra Jordánová dedicated herself to work in the children's department. After successfully completing her studies at the film academy, she stayed with fairy tales. "In the beginning, it wasn't just fairy tales, television also needed classical repertoire. So I filmed Moliere, Turgenev, also the scripts of Fr. A book about young people. Probably the best-known is the four-part adaptation of Jane Eyre."

HIDDEN WITH FAIRY TALES
Although not a party member, she had no problems in the Czechoslovak Television environment. She explains it herself by saying that the editors were "only decent people". Even during the stormy period after the occupation by Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968, she remained a non-partisan. Perhaps also because this period was marked by a profound loss in life when her husband died in 1967. “Half of my life is gone. I had completely different worries.' Quite possibly, however, the pressure that was, for example, in the political editorial office, could not be compared to that in the children's department. Many actors and directors "liked to jump back to fairy tales," as Věra Jordánová describes the events at that time with a distance. She herself knew very well how to promote an actor who was not politically desirable. "At the time, the film's cast was approved by the chief dramaturg, it was written in such a waiting list that if an actor couldn't, he was in 2nd place, and if even that actor couldn't be, then the name was in 3rd place. We found out well which of the politically desirable actors is full and who can't, and then we wrote them in 1st and 2nd place, no one looked at the last places." And so it happened that, for example, Vlastimil Fišar, Jan Tříska or Rudolf Hrušínský appeared in her directors. When the situation calmed down in the eighties, the witness was slowly preparing for retirement. She left for good a year before the Velvet Revolution. Later, she collaborated for a short time on several directors, but she no longer followed the changes brought about by the new arrangement. "I looked up to Václav Havel with great enthusiasm. I myself was at the Na žábradlí Theater when he came through the railings on New Year's Eve 1989."

PARADISE LOST
However, she did not remain completely inactive either. She decided to pass the driving test because she still spoke German well. "I once guided a group of German evangelical pastors and their wives around Terezín. At one point the wife of one of them dropped a handkerchief, I bent down to pick it up. The woman cried and then asked me to forgive her people what he had done to mine." The painful theme returned even at the end of his life. And finally, even the lost paradise of childhood returned at least for a moment in 2010, as Věra Jordánová was awarded Honorary Citizenship of the city of Šternberk. Almost with tears in her eyes, she says: "It wasn't just me, but also my father, mother and all those who were expelled in 1938," and the elegant lady, the director Věra Jordánová, concludes her narration.
© All rights come from the project rights: Stories of 20th Century
Witness story in project Stories of 20th Century (Lenka Faltýnková)