I lost most of my loved ones
Marie Henzlová was born on October 15, 1930 in Buková in the Drahanská Highlands as the fourth child of the couple Anežka and Tomáš Švec. The whole family, including the older sister Anežka and her husband Pravoslav Kovář, helped the Partisans. She herself brought food to the Partisan soldiers and was the only one in the family not to be arrested at the age of fourteen. Most of her closest ones lost their lives because of their resistance activities. Her father and brother Tomáš died during imprisonment in the Flossenbürg concentration camp. No particular information was ever found regarding the fate of Anežka‘s mother. A month after the war, her brother Josef returned from the concentration camp where he buried his father and then his brother during his imprisonment. Her sister and brother-in-law died during the Partisan raids in the Drahanská Highlands at the end of the World War II. In 1949, Marie married Josef Henzl and they had three sons together. Her husband received a disability pension after a serious injury, and she was able to finish school and learn cooking at a later age. She spent most of her life in Boskovice, where she worked for several years as a cook at the local Minerva company. After protracted health complications and a general collapse of the body, she also received a disability pension at the age of forty-four. Her husband died first, and her two older sons died recently; Pavel died tragically and Josef died during the pandemic due to complications of Covid-19. She has a certificate of resistance and has the status of a war veteran. In 2021, Marie Henzlová received the Medal of the South Moravian Region.