Marie Poláková

* 1952

  • "She came to wake me up and said, 'You, I don't know if you're going there, it's war.' We were sitting and crying and we didn't know what to do. She said, 'I'm not letting you go!' There was a roar of planes, it was coming from Trutnov to here through Lánov. We stayed at home, we didn't go anywhere. The next day or two days later we went to Jilemnice. My dad was no longer working at the sawmill then and he was working at the road administration, now the Liberec region has road maintenance there, he was a stoker there. I don't remember exactly with whom, but they took a door from a wardrobe and wrote on it the sign: 'Go back home!' We went through Jilemnice to Mříčná, behind the stadium. There were tanks with boys who didn't know what was going on. We shouted at them to go back, what they wanted here. There were signs on all kinds of wardrobe doors."

  • "When they didn't join the cooperative farm, contributions were imposed on them and they had to grow what they were told to grow. My uncle had to grow flax. We in Štěpanice were metal farmers [farmers who went to work elsewhere but owned a small house or farm], my parents had two cows, chickens and rabbits in the barn. Dad went to work, Mum was at home with us and farmed. We delivered milk. There was a tanker truck, and in the morning the milk always had to be delivered to the collection point."

  • "Her [mum´s] first service was in Hrabačov with the Novotný family. From there she went to Lánov, where she worked, taking care of the cattle and working in the fields, everything related to farming. In Lánov she said such a stupid thing: ’I didn't make up the war!‘ They were such Germans that they had her arrested for sabotaging work. She spent a year in the prisons, where she also worked, the girls had to go to the kitchen and so on."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Vrchlabí, 01.03.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 01:45:06
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - HRK REG ED
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

Contributions were imposed on them and they were forced to grow flax

Marie Poláková at practical training in Vrchlabí in the 1960s
Marie Poláková at practical training in Vrchlabí in the 1960s
zdroj: Witness´s archive

Marie Poláková, née Petráková, was born on 23 April 1952 in Jilemnice. She came from a Catholic family and attended church from childhood. Her mother was imprisoned by the Germans during the Second World War for sabotage of labour. Her grandfather and uncle refused to join a cooperative farm after 1948 and continued to farm privately. She lived with her parents, sister Helena and brother Jaromír on a farm in Štěpanice. In 1968 she protested against the occupation with her parents in Jilemnice. She trained as a men‘s dressmaker and began working for the Vkus cooperatice company in Vrchlabí. In 1973 she married and had a daughter Štěpánka and a son Ondřej. In 1977 she moved with her family to Vrchlabí and then worked at Kablo until her retirement. From Jiří Wonka she learned details about the text of Charter 77. In the 1980s she became a member of the Czechoslovak people´s Party (ČSL). She used to go on trips and pilgrimages with the local Catholic community. In November 1989, she particpated in demonstrations in the Vrchlabí square. In 2023 she was living in Vrchlabí.