As long as the war didn’t start, it was good
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Branka Štefaniková, née Indráková, was born on February 5, 1935 in Garešnica, Croatia, into a family of Czech compatriots. She spent her childhood in Borovo Selo, a settlement founded by Tomáš Baťa, where she was caught up in the Second World War. Her father and elder brother enlisted, while Branka, together with her mother and sister, stayed at home and took care of the Nazi soldiers. In 1946, the whole family left by repatriation train for Czechoslovakia, where her father was from. As a young woman, Branka worked, among other things, on the construction of the blast furnaces in Ostrava, where she also met her future husband Vladimir. Later they settled in Olbramovice, where the witness worked in the unified agricultural cooperative (JZD) and on the local national committee. She and her husband raised two children. Glaucoma caused her almost complete loss of sight. In 2025 she was living in the care of her immediate family in Olbramovice.
