Deported Banat Czechs photographed in Comanesti. Sitting on the balcony, from the left: the Fikls’ neighbour Visket, Rudolf Fikl with wife, and Věra Jágrová and Margareta in the front. At the bottom, left to right: Feri Visket with child, Kristýna Fiklová with son Josef, and František Fikl. Comanesti, Romania, circa 1953

Banat Czechs photographed in Comanesti. Top left: Kristýna Fiklová with sister Aloisie Jágrová. Next to them is František Fikl, his sister in front of him, and Aloisie Jágrová’s husband is on his left. The two women on the right are Aloisie Jágrová’s sisters-in-law, visiting Comanesti. Bottom row: sister Anna Urban, cradling her brother Josef, next is Margareta, and cousin who came for a visit. Comanesti, Romania, circa 1954

Relatives on a visit to Comanesti. Sisters Anna and Margareta Fikls are absent. Viktor Fikl holds an accordion; father František is top right, with wife Kristýna at his left. Comanesti, Romania, early 1950s

Witness’s grandfather Josef Fikl died in Comanesti and never got to return to Eibenthal. At his grave are Margareta and elder sister Anna. Comanesti, Romania, 1950s

Group photo of several families deported from Eibenthal: the Nedvěds, the Šrámeks, the Fikls, and the Jágrs. Visiting are František Fikl’s stepbrother with wife (standing together at left), Viktor Fikl (with the accordion), and Kristýna Fiklová’s sister (standing far right). Anna with braids is sitting centre and sister Margareta is next to her. Grandfather Josef Fikl, who died in Comanesti, is sitting at the right corner. Comanesti, Romania, early 1950s

Fikl sisters, undated

After return from Comanesti to Eibenthal, Romania, 1950s

Little musicians from Eibenthal, Margareta is third from right. Eibenthal, Romania, 1950s

František Fikl shaking hands with a local policeman. In the background is a photograph of Romanian dictator Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, one of the masterminds behind the deportations of citizens to Baragan. Eibenthal, Romania, turn of the 1950s/1960s

In front of the Fikls’ house where the family lived after returning from Comanesti. Eibenthal, Romania, undated

Margareta (bottom right) shortly after her appendectomy. Uncle Václav Jágr (left) came to visit in Comanesti. Comanesti, Romania, early 1950s

Witness’s brother Josef Fikl who was born in Comanesti. Photographed likely on returning to Eibenthal – latter 1950s

František Fikl as the godfather with the baptised person

Irena Voltrová, Kristýna Fiklová’s cousin

Margareta Peck (right), Eibenthal, latter 1950s

Grandfather Josef Fikl who never got to return to Eibenthal and died in exile in Comanesti. Comanesti, Romania, early 1950s

The Fikl parents with daughters Anna and Margareta, Comanesti, Romania, early 1950s

Margareta Peck recording with Memory of Nation, Ústí nad Labem, February 2023

Margareta Peck recording with Memory of Nation, Ústí nad Labem, February 2023

Maternal great-grandfather Jan Valter

Samuel Machek in 2023

Samuel Machek in 2023

Samuel Machek’s father Otakar Machek, 1914/1915

Samuel Machek and his twin brother Daniel with friends, 1941. Samuel Machek is top centre, his brother Daniel below him

Samuel Machek (right) with mother Anna Machková and brother Daniel, 1946