Second-year student of the Bachelor's programme in Archival Studies and Auxiliary Historical Sciences with combined studies in Czech Language and Literature

30 May 2003 – 21 December 2023 (20 years old)

Klára Holcová on the steps of the Rudolfinum, April 2023. Photo: Kristýna Jakl Ansorgová Klára was immensely passionate about her studies; she found her calling there. A girl full of energy and enthusiasm, always smiling and up for a laugh. A beloved daughter and sister, an excellent athlete, and a devoted friend. But let’s start from the beginning…

Klárka, baptised as Klára Zdislava, was born in Prague into a family of natural scientists as the youngest of four sisters. Her native languages were Slovak and Czech, between which she seamlessly transitioned. A year after her birth, the family moved to Brandýs nad Labem. However, her ties to Prague remained, and so Klárka commuted to the Primary School of St. Stephen in Prague 2 and then for eight years to the Archbishop's Grammar School in Vinohrady. During her upbringing in the Christian faith, she was influenced by the Brandýs priests Jan Houkal and Josef Hurt. For confirmation, which was led by the beloved chaplain of the Archbishop's Grammar School, Dominican Hyacint Ullmann, she chose the name Ester for herself.

From a young age, she frequently spent time with her family in nature and on trips around the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Europe. Her mother encouraged her interest in sports, teaching her to ski excellently and also enrolling her in swimming and basketball. Klárka was tenacious and extraordinarily strong, which led her to join the Athletics Club of Stará Boleslav from the age of 13. She focused on shot put, but also on discus and hammer throw. She was coached by Jiří Kreuter (2016–2018) and then by Stanislav Pluhař (2018–2023) with his wife Jindřiška. In the last two seasons, she honed her spinning shot put technique in Pardubice and Hradec Králové under the guidance of Milan Brzek. In youth categories, she won a total of nine medals at national championships. She also represented the Czech Republic at two international matches. Her personal record in shot put in the adult category is 14.23 m.

Her first encounter with scientific work, which fascinated her greatly, was the development of a study on the Reflection of the Pan-Slavic Movement based on the literary legacy of Pavel Jozef Šafárik, with which she achieved 8th place at the National Showcase of Secondary School Scientific Activities. At that time, she also helped at the Department of Geology and Palaeontology at the Faculty of Science, Charles University.

Klára Holcová, celebration of her 20th birthday, May 2023. Photo: Jan Holec

At grammar school, Klára was particularly interested in humanities and languages, especially literature, history, German, English, and Latin. After careful consideration, she decided to study Archival Studies and Czech Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. From the second semester of her university studies, she began actively participating in the committee of the Prague student section of the Czech Archival Society and, with her characteristic enthusiasm, embarked on a job at the Archive of the City of Prague, where, under the guidance of Zora Damová, she processed her first and unfortunately also her last fonds (German Men's Gymnastics Society Prague, 1888–1939). She wished to continue working there after completing her studies. From the second year, she added Hungarian as an additional language. All the languages she knew would have been very useful in her archival work.

In 2020, she became enthusiastic about archery, which she trained in the SK RAPID Prague club under Václav Luňáček from 2021 to 2023. She participated in four competitions, made it into national rankings, but then realised that a day only has 24 hours and set archery aside for veteran competitions. In the last year of her life, she excelled in weightlifting. Representing the Sokol Vyšehrad club, she set a national record in the under-23 category with a performance of 100 kg in December 2023.

Those around her perceived her as cheerful, witty, selfless, calm, and kind. She was surrounded by many friends and, due to her empathy, was able to bring together people of various temperaments. She was very adept at many things. Baking was one of her hobbies. She baked pastries for the Garáž café in Karlín. She enjoyed sewing. She avidly read, always preferring a classic book over an e-reader. She diligently completed all prescribed reading and among Czech writers, she particularly liked Čapek and Kafka. She looked forward to the holidays when she eagerly read fantasy. She cheered for her favourite athletes, was interested in public affairs, and enjoyed long sleeps. She wanted to learn analogue photography from her father, but they only managed to get as far as developing her first film roll. There were also things she disliked – conflict situations, mathematics, long hiking trips that made her back hurt, and cycling. She was able to patiently endure her health challenges – for many years, she had to wear painful braces and due to a congenital eye defect, she had poorer spatial vision.

In the summer of 2023, she moved back to Prague with her sister Tereza, her long-time athletics partner, to be closer to school and her jobs. She had several bold plans for the future. She considered studying both law and philosophy, wanted to go on Erasmus to her beloved Germany, hoped to reach a stable representative level in both athletics and weightlifting, and aimed for the Olympics in weightlifting. She did not have a partner but wished to have a husband and children in the future.

The final farewell for Klárka took place on 5 January 2024, with a large attendance of family, friends, acquaintances, and sympathisers at a mass at the Church of St Ignatius in Prague; it was led by P. František Hylmar SJ, who baptised Klárka there 20 years ago and where she received her school-leaving certificate in 2022. Her remains will be interred at Vyšehrad Cemetery. Read more about her in the memories of those who knew her well.

Klárko, we miss you terribly. The evil that claimed a young student has also affected us. Even though we are alive, we are victims too.

The Holec family