Only a ploughed field remained of the family farm in Volhynia
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Marie Kadeřábková, née Špačková, was born on 27 May 1933 in the village of Kozín in Volhynia. Her father died when she was three years old. She spent most of her childhood working on the family farm and only went to school for a few years. She does not remember the war years fondly; during the five years of the war, Volhynia was under alternating Soviet and Nazi occupation, and the civilian population was also cruelly affected by ethnic fighting between Ukrainians and Poles. During this period, the family of the witness concentrated mainly on providing for their own living needs. They raised cattle, farmed fields, processed sheep’s wool, and sewed shoes. In early 1944, her stepfather, along with many other Volhynian men, joined the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps, which was pushing the Germans out of Eastern Europe with the Soviets. In the autumn, he was killed near Dukla during the failed Carpatho-Dukla operation. Marie Kadeřábková’s family took the opportunity to return to Czechoslovakia. In 1947, Marie Kadeřábková, together with her mother and sister, arrived in Šumperk after a difficult journey of several weeks on the re-migrant train. In 1949 she married Alois Žídek, with whom she had a daughter. In 1961 she married a second time, to Rudolf Kadeřábek, and a year later they had a daughter. She visited her birthplace twice as an adult. However, she never found her birth farm again. Over the years, the locals dismantled it and ploughed up the land. In 2023 Marie Kadeřábková lived in Neznášov near Jaroměř.
