Božena Jůvová

* 1923

  • "They didn't want to go to the collective farm. Dad said, 'No, we can handle it, and when the boy comes back, I'll hang the communists on a tree. He didn't have an oath, he didn't have to, but they didn't do anything with him. We had an disobedient horse, Shimla. And my father went with him to the district of Litomyšl and said, 'Take him and take me. But I'll take revenge on you when the boy comes home! Do you know what it was like to say this under the Communists ?! His teeth were knocked out, he was suffering. But he survived, he survived. "

  • In three days, I received a copy from Litomyšl from the Labor Office that I should return to the Labor Office. Well, I went there after three days. There I was told, 'So, Miss Juvova, how have you changed your mind? We give you work in the forest to plant trees, in the brickyard in Vysoké Mýto and on the Voděrady State Farm. Where have you decided to go? I had to answer that. So I joined Voděrady on a state farm in May 1950. I don't know which day, but I know that the first day, the manager, who was there with me, I had to introduce myself to him. He had pegs for me, and we were supposed to work next to the peanuts, crawling on our knees. I had my share there and I had to do it. This is how I rode my bike to Voděrady on a dirt road for half a year until Christmas. Then I got hurt and got sick. They dragged me to the hospital and I got infectious hepathitis. "

  • "When he was arrested, three cars arrived in front of our house. Vlada was in shorts, so they let him put on his trousers. Dad told the men, I don't know how many - five or six - they were members of STB ... Vlada told them they had no right to arrest him. They told him that they would not talk to him, and they went with him to Hradec for interrogation or where they went with him. I don't know, I never asked him, because when our guys came back, they couldn't say anything, it was serious. So (to Mom's question at the door) they said they were from the tractor station. So Mom opened the door for them. But they just put an arrest warrant on their hand and were pulling him. And my mother was very just, we were patriots. And she took her shoes and threw her shoes at these men. I don't know if they were from manure, so they jumped away. Well, you know, it was a quick process, they just let him quickly put on his clothes and took him away ... to Hradec or I don't know where. We went to see him for the first time in a year for five or ten minutes for such a short interview. "

  • "It was such a high supply of eggs, rye, wheat that it was not possible for Dad, the people - the rural kulaks - to supply it. Well, we were without eggs. We had to stamp all the eggs, it had about six numbers, it was done. And in order to have eggs, our mother secretly went to a cottage of one lady in the neighbourhood in the evening. She left her eggs for our family to have eggs. That's how we lived. And we were rural kulaks, I say slaves. "

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    České Heřmanice , 09.12.2021

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They called us kulaks, but we were slaves

Božena Jůvová in 1948
Božena Jůvová in 1948
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Božena Jůvová was born on February 25, 1923 in České Heřmanice-Borová. She was born together with her twin brother Vladimír (1923–1983). Father Stanislav Jůva (1894–1964) and mother Anna, née Hudečková (1901–1986), worked on the family farm. The farm included twenty hectares of land, twenty-five cattle, pigs, three horses. The children had to work at home from an early age in proportion to their age. After leaving the burgher school, Božena stayed at home on the farm to help. The father was a patriot and a member of Sokol movement. During the war, he supported with meat people from the cities who suffered from food shortages. After the communist coup in 1948, the state began the violent collectivization of agriculture and the open persecution of the peasants, listing devastating supplies for them and taking over their property. In May 1950, Božena had to leave the family farm and go to work at the Voděrady State Farm. After six months, she contracted hepathitis and, after healing, joined the kitchen of Restaurants and Canteens in Litomyšl at the beginning of 1951 as an auxiliary force. As the daughter of the kulak, she did not receive any wages for the first three months, after which she made 350 crowns a month. In August 1951, members of the StB arrested her brother, who took over the farm at home. After six months, he was sentenced to sixteen years in prison for hiding a friend who failed to escape abroad. Another person in hiding on their farm was probably a StB confidant. The brother‘s wife and her one-year-old son stayed at home, leaving Božena‘s parents and grandparents to work. They had to take away everything that their farm produced, so they had nothing to eat. Her brother was serving a sentence in the uranium mines in Jáchymov. He was released with poor health on an amnesty in 1960. Božena worked in the kitchen until 1954, and when they canceled the kitchen, she went to the Czech Heřmanice collective farm as a temporary worker. She was there for the hardest work until 1961. At that point, the Juva family were already in the collective farm, because there was no other possibility left to them. Their property was confiscated, though their proud father defended himself as best he could. At the end of 1961, Božena went to Andrlův Chlum near Ústí nad Orlicí, where she worked as a cook, maid and cleaner in a hotel and restaurant. Later, she completed additional qualification and led apprentices who had internships in Andrl‘s chlum. She raised dozens of girls. She retired in 1980. In 2021 she lived with her nephew in České Heřmanice-Borová in the farm where she was born.