Evil things are done by small people with big power
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Zdena Salátková, née Klegrová, was born on 22 November 1926 into the family of the farmer Josef Klegr in Pitkovičky (now a part of Prague). Zdena had two younger brothers, Josef and Oldřich. The family lived on their farm in Benice near Prague, where they had 12 hectares of soil. Zdena married and moved in with Josef Salátek from a neighbouring farm in 1949. After 1948 all the private farmers in Benice, presumably out of gratitude that they were not deported to the border regions like the farmers of the neighbouring Lipany, handed over their property to the local united agricultural cooperative without any resistance. Because Zdena refused to join the Communist Party, she lost her job of switchboard operator in Prague, and as the daughter of a “kulak” the mayor of Benice later refused to release her from the farming coop, where he kept her as a seasonal worker. She did not receive his permission to work full-time somewhere else, and so she had to live without a regular income for a full 13 years. The family had to make do with her husband’s wage. She finally found a job (at Kablo in Prague-Hostivař) in 1963 thanks to her husband’s connection in the national committee.
