Whoever kept a shrapnel was shot by the Germans
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Milada Rainová was born on 17 August 1923 in East Bohemia. Her mother Božena, née Valentová, was a housewife, her father František Zejfart worked in a brickyard. Little Milada thus lived her childhood, which she remembers fondly, in the period of the First Czechoslovak Republic. In 1939, she went to Baťov for school and work. There she also lived through the Protectorate. Intense memories of a friend who died in Auschwitz, of falling bombs, of the ever-present hunger and of German soldiers who did not hesitate to shoot people for no apparent reason are linked to this period. In 1952 she married Zdeněk Rain, with whom she raised two daughters. She and her family traveled extensively, and Milada Rainová had the opportunity to visit Yugoslavia, Germany, the Soviet Union, and, towards the end of the 1980s, the United States. She described the regime change in 1989 as a huge change for her life, but one that she was excited about. In 2023, at nearly 100 years old, Milada Rainová lived a self-sufficient and fulfilling life in Dvůr Králové and Labem, often visited by her family.
