Marie Koukalová

"So I was in seventh class and I went past my house every day. Every day. To that school. Terrible. [Cries] But I just got over it. So I finished seventh class there. And by eighth class, I was in Ostrá. A bunch of us were evicted that day. We were evicted to the main farmhouse. There was a beautiful villa next door and the caretaker lived there. And next to that was another small farm, which used to belong to Mr. Hnilica, an engineer, so they evicted the Kubíček family from Hořátev and another family from Hořátev and moved them teher. There were also people from another farm, from Kamenné Zboží. They also evicted three other farmers besides us to the Obora near Ostrá. So we all gathered there like that. It was difficult. Financially it was very bad. Daddy had no money, he couldn't work with that leg at all. My mother was sent to herd cows, there were cows by the Elbe, there were beautiful pools. And Daddy was sick because he had that Bürger illness."

"And suddenly, one day they came. The Militia came with these big cars, saying that we had to leave our farm, that they were going to evict us. And that we could take ... [the witness cries] ... on the truck that we could take some things and that they would take us away from that farm, from that Straky, from that No. 10. Daddy could hardly walk with those legs. And now my mother was there... My brother was at school, he went to school in the morning in Poděbrady. And I was there, because I think we had half-term holidays. That was February 25, 1952. And now they came and just said that we had to move out and that they were going to take us somewhere. So they loaded something on the car. And they put my mother in there, and my daddy too. And we had a big St. Bernard dog, Baryk, and they put him in the car too. We had a smaller dog, big as a fox. They didn't put him anywhere. And now they were deciding... There were the Militia, they occupied everything. People from the village came and went to the cowshed. We had excellent milk cows there. Daddy had first-class everything. And my mother had the chickens again, she was very busy. And now they came and took everything and put us in the car. And they drove us out of the Straky on February 25, 1952. And they were taking us somewhere, they didn't know where, because they were just deciding where to take us."

"At the end of the war, it was at the beginning of May, the seventh, eighth, [they bombed] Straky, which was near Milovice. Nearby were Milovice, Mladá, Boží Dar. It was all occupied by the Germans. And in May they bombed us. They bombed Mladá Boleslav, and the villages around it. In Straky, a lot of bombs fell. I remember that very well. My brother, six years older, had friends in our yard. The boys were playing there and suddenly bombs started falling. My grandmother didn't know what was happening. She was running: 'Boys, come inside, the bombs are falling!' She took them from the yard, from the entrance, into the kitchen. She hid them there. It was about five boys. Bombs were falling. We had everything blown up, a big mess in the yard. My mother was a poultry farmer, she was particularly good at it. Daddy built her a beautiful, huge chicken coop. There were young beautiful chickens. And the bombs tore them all apart. Grounded them into the ground, smashed everything that was built for them, and the chickens went flying all over the place. That's how Grandma saved the boys. And because it was in May, on the seventh, eighth of May, my grandmother was looking for me, that we would go to the church in Všejany. She couldn't find me anywhere. She didn't know where I was. She ran to the neighbours, she thought I was at a friend's house, at Vašek Vinkler's, about three houses away. She got there, opened the door and looked around. The barn was gone. The bombs had destroyed it all. She knew that me and Vašek had been playing at the barn. She ran inside and called out. And suddenly, me and Vasek were under such a table. Because Mrs. Winkler had goats and she had to be with the goat. So she put me and Vašek under the table and threw a blanket over us: ,Stay here!‘ And Grandma found us under the table. Mrs. Winkler had to go to the baby goats to get them born. So, finally, Grandma found me. They were so happy that I was unharmed despite the bombing."

"The next day they came and said, 'Load your things.' They didn't say where we were going, we didn't know where we were going at first. They put our things on a flatbed truck or something like that. We had a big Bernardine then and it was also on the flatbed. We also had a small dog, which ran from Straky through the whole Lysá behind the tractor to Ostrá, in Obor. It was our second dog. That's how our family moved there. When I went to school for the first time, I realized that we have dogs, but that we don't have a cat; that I didn't find it there (at the time of moving). So, I got up and went from Čachovice to Straky to our aunt´s, Mrs. Řípová, and I said: 'Lend me something, I'm going for a cat.' She lent me a net bag and I went to our farm, where there were people and their task there was milking, it was evening, they watched how I got there, such a girl, because I was not allowed to enter there. We were not allowed to enter. I saw that the cat was there, I grabbed it, put it in the net bag and ran back to my aunt. She probably gave me something else for the cat and I took the four-hour bus back home."

"It was a period of time - I married a political prisoner and we were still looking for his job. He had the education, everything. The worst thing about Nymburk was that when my husband died, my daughter and I were persecuted. If my husband was alive, they wouldn't do it. He would manage it, even though he was a political prisoner. The girl was excellent in school, suddenly it was over and it hit me and my daughter. She went through difficult situations; she could not go to school or anywhere else. But only when we were left alone. I went to beg. 'No. No way. No way. No way.' That was hard - the StB and everything. You don't know what else to do... You take the child: 'Come with me. You're not going to school.' - 'How come I am not going to school?' - 'You have to go to the StB with me.' - 'And what are we going to do there?' - 'I have to explain something there.' 'Ma'am, why are you coming here with a child – at 8 o'clock in the morning?' - 'And what am I supposed to do with her? I'll send her to school and what about you here with me?' - ' Sit here then' - 'No, Nellynka will be with me and you tell me what you want from me. You know me. You know where I work.' I took the girl with me to the StB. I was worried about her, you know. You don't know what could happen. You leave and then the child disappears. You have to hold her hand all the time! The worst time was when Vlasta wasn't. They were torturing us."

"When [Vlastimil and his fellow prisoners] were put on the express train from Moravia to Kolín and Nymburk, they got money for which they could buy something on the train. They went to the dining car with Mirek Šťastný. And now - fork, knife, spoon. Cutlery. And now they were watching. You have to understand, when you did not have anything like that for ten and a half years ... The boys were funny. And now [Vlastimil] didn't know where he lived. [Before] he lived in a sugar factory, [now] he wrote to his parents to Krátká street, but he did not know where it is. Miloš Duchaňů, he was also one of those who [were convicted in the trial], arrived two or three days earlier, he went to the trains and waited for Vlasta to come, so he would take him home. They lived close to the station, where they had a family house. Finally, he found Vlasta, Vlasta came. Miloš immediately took him home to his parents, everyone greeted him. Then he said: "Now I will go with you to your parents. They do not know. We will go together to Jankovice." All right, they came to Jankovice, to the second part [Nymburk]. The parents were at home and they welcomed Vlasta. After ten and a half years."