Marie Balátová

* 1947

  • "Please, it was about the third day, and the baby was taken along. You're not going to lie there because work is waiting. You can't lie down, whatever it was. The baby was put in a scarf, there to be pampered. If it was hungry, it was crying, you'd go to breastfeed and then you'd drew the line in the field or you'd reap or you'd feed the cow. You had to turn the cow away from the corn, too, so it wouldn't eat it. That was necessary, too. Some were longer."

  • "A downpour came, the sun was shining and the downpour came so fast, it was so golden. Suddenly it flashed and I saw the lightning fly down into the ravine. The cows that were grazing in the woods flew up to us. Dad got scared and ran downstairs. When we got there, the horses were one here and one there, and so were the children. The horses didn't fall on the children, I don't know. The children fell on the upper side and the horses fell on the lower side. I was 14 years old then. Both [siblings] were dead and my dad was calling my mom from the grave, 'Mom, come help me!' Because there were two [children]: brother Josef and [sister] Malči."

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    Kraslice, 16.03.2024

    (audio)
    délka: 01:35:13
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of the 20th Century TV
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

By the third day after I gave birth, I had to work in the field

Marie Balatova at 17 years old, Rovensko (Romania)
Marie Balatova at 17 years old, Rovensko (Romania)
zdroj: archive of the witness

Marie Balátová, née Pražáková, was born on 10 October 1947 in the Czech village of Rovensko in the Romanian Banat. She grew up in a remote place in a traditional farming family and from an early age her parents involved her in farm work. She completed four grades in the local Czech school and then worked in her parents‘ farm. Her mother died soon after, and as her older sister was serving for a Romanian family, most of the duties fell to her. After her mother‘s death, her father found a surrogate mother for his children, but they hardly found a kind relationship. Around the age of 15, a tragic accident occurred during field work when her brother and sister were struck by lightning; despite severe injuries, both siblings survived but suffered permanent damage. She married in the 1960s and continued to work with her husband in agriculture. In 2000, she and her husband came to the Czech Republic for a short visit to visit their family, but eventually decided to stay and set up permanent residence here. At the time of filming (April 2024), the witness lived in Skalná in the Cheb region.