They called us kulaks, but we were slaves
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Božena Jůvová was born on February 25, 1923 in České Heřmanice-Borová. She was born together with her twin brother Vladimír (1923–1983). Father Stanislav Jůva (1894–1964) and mother Anna, née Hudečková (1901–1986), worked on the family farm. The farm included twenty hectares of land, twenty-five cattle, pigs, three horses. The children had to work at home from an early age in proportion to their age. After leaving the burgher school, Božena stayed at home on the farm to help. The father was a patriot and a member of Sokol movement. During the war, he supported with meat people from the cities who suffered from food shortages. After the communist coup in 1948, the state began the violent collectivization of agriculture and the open persecution of the peasants, listing devastating supplies for them and taking over their property. In May 1950, Božena had to leave the family farm and go to work at the Voděrady State Farm. After six months, she contracted hepathitis and, after healing, joined the kitchen of Restaurants and Canteens in Litomyšl at the beginning of 1951 as an auxiliary force. As the daughter of the kulak, she did not receive any wages for the first three months, after which she made 350 crowns a month. In August 1951, members of the StB arrested her brother, who took over the farm at home. After six months, he was sentenced to sixteen years in prison for hiding a friend who failed to escape abroad. Another person in hiding on their farm was probably a StB confidant. The brother’s wife and her one-year-old son stayed at home, leaving Božena’s parents and grandparents to work. They had to take away everything that their farm produced, so they had nothing to eat. Her brother was serving a sentence in the uranium mines in Jáchymov. He was released with poor health on an amnesty in 1960. Božena worked in the kitchen until 1954, and when they canceled the kitchen, she went to the Czech Heřmanice collective farm as a temporary worker. She was there for the hardest work until 1961. At that point, the Juva family were already in the collective farm, because there was no other possibility left to them. Their property was confiscated, though their proud father defended himself as best he could. At the end of 1961, Božena went to Andrlův Chlum near Ústí nad Orlicí, where she worked as a cook, maid and cleaner in a hotel and restaurant. Later, she completed additional qualification and led apprentices who had internships in Andrl’s chlum. She raised dozens of girls. She retired in 1980. In 2021 she lived with her nephew in České Heřmanice-Borová in the farm where she was born.
