I had to wear a badge with the letter “N” for German (Němec)
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Jana Machová was born on 24 May 1936 in Žacléř into a family of German nationality. She spent her childhood during the construction of the Czechoslovak fortifications and the Second World War. Her father, Alois Schorm, had to enlist in the German army and went to the Eastern Front, from where he never returned. Years later, he was declared dead. After the war, the family did not have to go into exile thanks to her mother’s work in the Texlen textile factory, but she still had to wear a badge with the letter “N” on it. In 1946, she entered a Czech class, although she did not speak Czech. In 1951, she finished school and wanted to become a teacher, but due to lack of money she went straight to work. She first worked manually in Texlen and later got a job as a planner. In the mid-1950s, she married Jiří Mach and they had five children. In August 1968, she experienced the occupation of Žacléř by the Warsaw Pact troops. She retired in 1989. She still lived in Žacléř during the filming in 2025.
