Going abroad these days means also to be allowed to come back. We should appreciate that.
Zuzana Marešová, née Spitzerová, was born on 26 January 1932 in Prague into a religiously and ethnically mixed family. Her father Maxmilián Spitzer was a Czechoslovak Jew and her mother Pavla, née Kastlová, a Christian from Vienna. In the spring of 1939, her father travelled to England to set up a branch of his company. Her mother then managed to send all three daughters to England as well, in July 1939, by trains whose departures from Czechoslovakia was organized by Nicholas Winton. Later mother also went to England. Zuzana Marešová spent two and three-quarters years in England with a host family in Cornwall, later living with her parents in London and Wales, and for a time she studied at a boarding school. Her father worked in the chemical industry in England and was a Home Guard volunteer. In 1945, the whole family returned to Czechoslovakia, except for the eldest daughter who joined the US Army and served in Germany. In 1948 they considered emigrating to Argentina. In the 1950s, Zuzana Marešová‘s father was imprisoned for one year. In 1968, the witness pondered emigrating, but remained in Czechoslovakia. Because of her daughter‘s emigration in 1984 and visits from abroad, she was interrogated by State Security several times in the 1980s and was being persuaded to cooperate. Zuzana Marešová was living in Prague at the time of filming in 2022.