Marie Kolářová

* 1929

  • "When the Russians came here after the war, well, everything had been left just like that. So it had to be cleaned up. There were wooden cabins. They sprayed lime on everything and we were cleaning it up. There were three or four of us, a bunch of women. No gloves, nothing. We washed it, let it dry, sprayed it again - three times in a row. And they gathered us from the surrounding villages and we had to do it."

  • "During the war, those policemen had to go out at night. And once they were really scared, so they made Dad to accompany them. And on that road, they went to check the gamekeeper´s lodges and - you know where, you drove past it - there used to be a hunting lodge behind Rozseč and there were steps to the house. They sent Dad to knock and they hid themselves under those steps. But the forester came to answer the door, so they searched everything and [found] nothing, and Dad could go home."

  • "I was going past this place, we were cycling with a friend when the camp had already been built here. The camp was standing and I can still see it to this day - at a window, from the road I was able to see it, there was a kind of bunk bed and children on it. And they weren't dressed. That's all I remember."

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    Památník holokaustu Romů a Sintů na Moravě, Hodonín u Kunštátu, 09.11.2021

    (audio)
    duration: 02:26:50
    media recorded in project Příběhy regionu - JMK REG ED
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Living in the proximity of the camp

Marie Kolářová, historical photo, Prague, undated
Marie Kolářová, historical photo, Prague, undated
photo: Witness´s archive

Marie Kolářová, née Šimková, was born on 15 August 1929 in the village of Rozseč nad Kunštátem in Moravia. She grew up in a religious family, which made their living by farming. During the Second World War, her father František was mayor of the village. During the collectivization, the Šimek family farm was taken over by the local cooperative farm (JZD). In the summer of 1945, the Soviet army settled near Rozseč, in the former so-called Gypsy camp near Hodonín u Kunštátu. For several days, Marie and other young people from the area were cleaning up the place where Moravian Roma and Sinti had been interned from August 1942 to September 1943. In 1949 she married Josef Kolář, a bus driver, and together they raised three children. For many years they lived in Hodonín near Kunštát. Marie Kolářová used to help out on farms or at a children’s home. In the autumn of 2021, an interview was made with her to record her memories, in the area of the Holocaust Memorial of Roma and Sinti in Moravia in Hodonín u Kunštátu.