They confiscated our farm. Dad was lucky as hell that he did not have to go to jail
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Marie Zajíčková, née Rathouská, was born on April 4, 1937. She lived with her parents and two older siblings in the village of Semechnice in the Rychnov region. Parents made a living as landowners, raising horses and cows. The peaceful family village life changed with the advent of the communist regime. Her parents had to pay unmanageable benefits, at that time the witness applied to a high school of economics, where she was not accepted because of her kulak origin. She entered the school in Nové Město nad Metují, where she learned the trade of watchmaking. The harassment from the communist regime did not stop; the parents soon had to move out of the farm in Semechnice. They found refuge in a poor cottage in Olešnice in the Orlické mountains, where, however, they initially struggled with poverty. Later, the witness passed her matriculation exam and got a placement at the company Elektročas in Prague. During normalization, she replaced a number of other professions. She stayed in the big city until her retirement, when she moved back to the foothills of the Eagle Mountains. In 2023, she lived in the village of Pohoří near Dobruška.
