"Once my mother was going alone, she walked from the train across the field to the cemetery and someone saw her. And when she came out of the cemetery, the SS were waiting for her with a car, they took her to Rakovník, to the police station, and told her she had to pay a five thousand fine for breaking the ban. She said, 'I don't have any money, you've robbed me of everything, so you can arrest me.' So she said that all morning they kept making phone calls, and they kept saying something, and when it got to the evening, they put her in the car, took her to the station, she had to buy a ticket for the train home, and they waited by the train until she got on and left."
"And in 'fifty-two, when dad wasn't home, they did two searches of the house and wrote down all kinds of things they wanted. But they didn't give an inventory of those things to anybody. And then there was this accusation, I think it was the criminal commission, it wasn't even the court, that they withheld things that were necessary to the farm. And that, you know, on the farm, there were old horse halters, for example, and various such farm tools stored in the attic. And they said he concealed it to harm the state. And the day before they were moved, the foreman at his job in Kladno said to him, 'Vasek, you have to go home, they're moving you tomorrow.' And the night before they were moved, the prosecutor was with us, and he ordered my mother that they couldn't pack anything, that they had to wait until the morning to determine what they could take. And here I have the list of things they could take with them, it was one sheet. A couple of things. No coal, no wood, nothing... And in the morning the truck came. Dad came home in the evening and in the morning the truck came with the prosecutor. And I know my mother said that the driver apologized to them afterwards, that he couldn't refuse, that otherwise he would be out of a job. So according to that list, they loaded it up and took them away."
"I remember only from my youth that Mrs. Vlčková used to come to our house. She used to come in the evening with a knife and my mother would give her lard and butter and flour and she would take it to the partisans. I remember that only as a child. I just saw her one evening when she came to us. That's what my mother told me afterwards. And of course she told me not to tell anybody, didn't she."
Drahuše Stříhavková, née Stehlíková, was born on 8 December 1930 in Kněževes, Rakovník. Her father Václav Stehlík was a respected farmer and a proud Sokol member. In 1949 he refused to join the JZD (united agricultural cooperative), and a year later his farm was subjected to an imposed lease. The final blow came in January 1953, when Václav Stehlík and his wife Anna had to move out from one day to the next with only a few belongings. Not only did the Communists confiscate his property as a “village rich man”, but they even forbade him to live in the Rakovník district. At that time, the witness was already married and living in Prague, but she carried the label “daughter of a kulak” until the Velvet Revolution in 1989. She sold the farm in Kněževes after the restitution, because she was no longer attracted to it. In retirement, she worked for almost ten years as secretary of the Podbělohorská Sokol County and at the same time, until 2002, she actively trained pupils and served as chief of the Velká Chuchle Sokol. In 2024 she lived in Prague.
Marking of the land that originally formed the farm of Václav Stehlík. Three apartment houses were built by JZD ( united agricultural cooperative) on the site of the garden and farm buildings
Marking of the land that originally formed the farm of Václav Stehlík. Three apartment houses were built by JZD ( united agricultural cooperative) on the site of the garden and farm buildings
