I was my brother’s liaison for the “black letter” mailings
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Marie Papoušková, née Marková, was born on January 18, 1930 in the village of Heršpice in the Vyškov region as the second of three children. Her brother Jan Marek, four years older than her, was a great role model and inspiration to her, and they had a good relationship. The war years did not significantly affect the village or the life of the family, only for about three weeks towards the end of the war were German soldiers accommodated in the Marek family, but they behaved very well. Marie Papoušková attended a small school in Heršpice, then a burgher school and a school for women’s professions, both in Slavkov. Shortly after the so-called Victorious February in 1948, brother Jan Marek was expelled from the Faculty of Arts in Brno because he openly disagreed with the new state system. A year later, Jan Marek was arrested and imprisoned for five years in a penal labour camp in Jáchymov for the crime of preparing a plot against the republic, which he was supposed to have committed by creating and distributing illegal leaflets. From prison, his brother sent Maria Papoušková uncensored, so-called black letters. She then distributed them to designated addresses in Brno, where she was studying at the Higher School of Nutrition at the time. During the distribution of the letters, she met, among others, Františka Papoušková, who introduced her to her son, Zdeněk Papoušek, who was imprisoned in Jáchymov with her brother, also for the crime of preparing an ambush for the Republic, specifically for distributing illegal leaflets. The wedding took place in 1953, shortly after the currency reform. Zdeněk Papoušek was under the scrutiny of the State Security Service (StB) and was interrogated several times for his activities in the parish of St. Tomáš in Brno. A petition for rehabilitation of Zdeněk Papoušek filed in 1968 was rejected. Zdeněk Papoušek did not receive rehabilitation until after the Velvet Revolution. In 2024, Marie Papoušková was living in Brno.
