If you take the cows away from us, I’ll stab you with pitchforks, my mother shouted.
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Zdeňka Řeháková (nee Kumpoltová) was born in Valeč on 29 June 1950. Her parents, Jan Kumpolt and Anna Kumpoltová, came to Valeč from Poland, coming from Faustynów near Zelów, a village founded by Czech emigrants from the post-Belarusian era. After World War II, they heard the call of the Czechoslovak authorities to settle in the border area, but they came only in the third wave of displaced people from Poland in September 1945. In Poland they felt pressure to move out as Czechs. At first, the committee in Valeč placed them in a house together with the original German family, the Brosch family, who owned the house and were not expelled to Germany until later. Mrs. Brosch taught Anna Krumpolt, the mother of the witness, how to take care of the farm. Her parents became private farmers in Valeč and remained so until the 1970s, even though the communist authorities pressured them to hand over the farm to the JZD (Unified Agricultural Cooperative). However, they had to pay high compulsory deliveries and the family lived in poor financial conditions. Zdeňka Řeháková finished primary school in Valeč and then wanted to become a cook. However, she was not admitted to the school because of her cadre evaluation. She stayed with her parents on the farm, while her other siblings moved away from Valeč. The family experienced the arrival of Warsaw Pact troops and the occupation of the nearby barracks by the Soviet garrison. She married in 1971. When she started a family, she could no longer help her parents. Therefore, they retired and eventually turned the farm over to a collectivized farm. However, they received no compensation. Even for the property they left behind in Poland, they eventually received only symbolic compensation. However, the property in Valeč was returned to the family after 1989 in restitution. Mrs. Řeháková experienced the fire of the castle in Valeč. At that time, she and her family lived on the square and watched the fire directly from the windows. Mrs Řeháková worked for the Zelenina Plzeň company, which stored apples in the former brewery cellars in Valeč. She then worked in the forest, sewing gloves and finally worked for the civil defence. Later she got a job in the hospital in Ostrov as an assistant cook, where she stayed until her retirement. In 2024, she was still living in Valeč.
