When the air raid started, I’d always grab my doll case and run to the basement
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Marie Kocourková was born on 3 May 1938 in Kolín. Her mother provided food for the peasants in the countryside and helped them in the fields. The food they got was then smuggled in on a ladder truck. From the end of 1944 until March 1945, she experienced the bombing of the Cologne refineries. She fainted during one air raid and by the age of eleven her hands were shaking as a result. After graduating from the secondary medical school, she worked in the Cologne hospital, where she worked her way up to the position of head nurse in the operating theatres. After the birth of her daughter, her husband died. She found a job in a nursing home in Cologne, where she stayed until she retired. At the time of filming (2024) she was living in a home for the elderly in Zruč nad Sázavou.
