In the village where Jan Kubiš grew up
Stáhnout obrázek
Marie Křížová was born on 29 July 1926 as a daughter of Bohumír Čech and Emilie Čechová in Ptáčov near Třebíč. She grew up as the second eldest of five children on the family farm and from her earliest childhood she was motivated to work in agriculture. She attended only the local one-class school. During the Second World War her parents helped people from the towns with food. Jan Kubiš, later known for his involvement in the assassination of Heydrich, spent several years in Ptáčov in the 1920s and 1930s. He was brought up there by his relatives, the Mitiska family. After the assassination of Heydrich, the Mitiskas were arrested and imprisoned for several months in the Terezín Small Fortress, while fourteen of Kubiš‘s closest relatives were executed by the Nazis. Even the family of the witness, who was distantly related to the Kubiš family, feared arrest. In May 1945, a Red Army officer stayed at the Čech family farm. After 1948, at the time of collectivisation, the Čechs, as private farmers, faced a gradual increase in supplies and other forms of harassment. They continued to farm privately until 1958, when their farm was nationalized. Marie married Ludvík Kříž in 1952 and they had two children, Ludvík and Marie. After her marriage, she lived with her family in Jihlava and worked as a cleaner or a shop assistant.
