I cried every time my friends moved
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Marie Vlčková was born in Hlinsko on 21 April 1940 to Marie Holubová and Otakar Holub. She spent her childhood in her paternal grandmother’s house where she lived with her parents until the end of the war. At a tender age, she witnessed a Gestapo raid near her home in June 1942 in connection to the discovery of a radio in nearby Ležáky. She weathered the end of the war and the toughest liberation combat in Držkov, the birthplace of her mother. In early 1946, they moved to Doupov where the parents ran the largest local shop. Marie entered first grade of primary school that same year. In 1951, soldiers and dog handlers began to move to Doupov, training in the abandoned houses. In early 1953, the Hradiště military training area was officially set up by a ministerial ruling and all the local inhabitants had to move to the adjacent villages. The Holub family continued to sell food in the village to soldiers and farm workers. They left their home on 17 May 1955 and moved to Lomnice. In 1961, the witness married and lived in Leskov in a forester’s lodge, taking care of her three daughters. She later moved to Klášterec nad Ohří and took up a job in the local porcelain factory. She was not politically involved in any way in her lifetime. At the time of filming, in 2025, Marie Vlčková lived in Klášterec nad Ohří.
