Praise the Lord and vote for the Communists

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Marie Janáková, née Stojanová, was born on the 20th of May in 1928 in Německý Brod (today’s Havlíčkův Brod). Her mother Františka was a homemaker and her father Karel worked as a labourer in local stone quarries. During the German occupation, her eldest brother was sent to Linz in Austria as a forced labourer and he died there in an accident. Her cousin Karel Drahozal was tortured to death in a concentration camp. Marie attended masses in the church of St. Vitus in Lipnice nad Sázavou where Father Jan Havelka served. The Gestapo arrested him for his patriotic sermons; he later died due to torture. She went to basic school in Dolní Město and from the age of fourteen, she worked as a labourer at local farms. She considered the Communist coup d’état of 1948 as the rightful victory of working people. Her husband was a member of the Communist Party; he was later elected to the post of the secretary of the Village National Committee. As a worker of the United Agricultural Cooperative, she retired in 1982. Her son, František Janák, is a recognised painter and glass artist. At the time of recording in January 2022, Marie lived in Dolní Město.