Only three of them have a grave with their names on it.
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Zdeňka Sitařová, born Štěpánková, was born on 14 March 1935 in the village of Obříství. The village is situated on the banks of the Elbe River on the main road connecting Prague and Mělník, a strategically important link at the end of the Second World War. The events of that time, which were largely related to the location of the place, also affected the life of the inhabitants of the until then peaceful Central Bohemian village. Zdeňka recalls the devastating air raid on Kralupy nad Vltavou and neighbouring Neratovice in March 1945, in which more than four hundred people died. Zdenka’s family was also directly affected by the air raid, her father’s hearing was permanently damaged by the shrapnel and her brother managed to hide from the bombs at the last moment. Ten-year-old Zdeňka also witnessed the cruel treatment of Soviet prisoners of war, whom the Germans briefly ‘housed’ in the barns of the Obříství estate. This was one of many transports of prisoners of war in the Mělník region. The fate of the impoverished and starving prisoners raised a great wave of solidarity among the inhabitants of Obříství and the people of the surrounding villages. Several of the prisoners managed to escape and were secretly helped by Zdenka’s parents. Zdeňka vaguely remembers the arrival of the Red Army soldiers, but in May 1945 there were about one thousand of them in the small village. In 1953, she moved to Prague for a time, where she worked as a telephone operator. After six years she returned home and stayed permanently. She worked on a local farm until her retirement and together with her husband raised a son and a daughter. Zdenka’s husband Josef Sitař came from Volhynia and moved to Obříství with his family as part of the post-war repatriation of Volhynian Czechs. During a devastating flood in 2002, Zdenka Sitařová’s family lost their house and all their possessions, and the witness now (2022) lives in a nursing home in Obříství.
