Don’t hurt each other
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Zuzana Blahetková was born on 15 January 1936. She grew up in Bolatice near Hlučín, where she lives to this day. Her father was employed as a bricklayer, her mother and the children looked after a small farm, with a field, cattle, and poultry. When Hlučín District became a part of the Third Reich on 8 October 1938 following the Munich Agreement, the witness was automatically awarded German citizenship. Her father and oldest brother were drafted into the Wehrmacht. In April 1945, Zuzana witnessed front-line combat during the Ostrava-Opava Operation. Together with her mother and her other siblings she fled inland to Bílovec, from where she and hundreds of other refugees were transported to a refugee camp in České Kamenice. When they returned they found their house officially confiscated, looted, and occupied by strangers. Her father was arrested upon returning from the front for his membership in a German political party. He was sentenced to mine work in Ostrava. The witness’s brother came home from captivity in 1946. Zuzana undertook training at a company called Juta, which made ropes, and she worked there for practically her whole life. In the 1960s she and her husband built their own house from self-made bricks. Since her childhood she has been active in folklore groups, which try to maintain the folk traditions and culture of Hlučín District.
