Czechoslovak Political Prisoners - über das Projekt Political ...

in the village. They were checking on municipal authorities and even businessmen. Once they
came to us. I was home alone then. They just wanted to know the way from Bílová to Rajnochovice.
They were very polite and for my advice they all said thank you, but I was afraid of
them.
Do you recall the beginning of the Protectorate?
Well, the bad times started then. I was going through it with my dad because my dad was really
interested in politics. We didn’t have a radio because we didn’t even have electricity, which
wasn’t installed until 1948. The forester had a radio on batteries. When we were occupied by
Hitler, dad went to listen to it. Then he came and said, “It’s sad, our people were determined
to fight, but it would be a worthless waste of blood.” I was taking it all in because it concerned
me as well. Then it started. On Bílová there were seven cottages and in one of them they didn’t
have any kids. Dad was friends with the neighbors who were living over the hill and once they
came to us and said that they would move paratroopers to us. Their name was Měsícovi. They
said that they would not delay us for a long time. They wanted to stay in our stalls, which were
empty at that time. Dad agreed to it, but was afraid because we had a neighbor who didn’t
have kids and at night she was walking around eavesdropping. It was agreed that they would
come to our stalls. Finally, we didn’t hide paratroopers there. It didn’t take long and my schoolmate
came and asked what homework did we have for school and I asked him, “Well Franta,
how is it possible that you don’t go to school?” He answered me, “You don’t know that our
whole family was picked by the Gestapo?” They were all arrested during one evening. There
were five sons and they left out only their mom and dad, but finally they were later arrested as
well. Their mom died in Dachau. Three of the sons were finally executed in 1942, one returned
and their dad died a month later. Those were very honest people, when they were going to the
execution they were singing a song, Green Groves.
Were Měsícovi executed for hiding paratroopers?
They were hiding the paratroopers and the paratroopers were later caught at the border.
One of them confessed about their hiding place and then I started to worry that he
would betray us because those were the same paratroopers that were supposed to hide in
our stalls. Luckily, nothing happened. From 1942 partisans started to walk around. The first
who came were Nikolai and Ivan. They were prisoners of war and had escaped from their
camp. We didn’t know them. They wanted alcohol and cigarettes from my dad, but he was
completely abstinent and a nonsmoker. They didn’t know this and didn’t believe it at all and
they pointed a gun at him. They were really impudent. I was so scared that I started yelling,
“Shucks, we really don’t have any, he doesn’t smoke, come and look, we don’t have any!”
Then they calmed down. From 1942 we didn’t have one calm night. Often there were as
many as forty or fifty partisans stopping in throughout the night. We never got a good night
sleep. As soon as we turned the lights off the dogs started barking and the partisans were
knocking on the door.
You lived in the meadows and partisans came to visit you every evening. What memories
do you have of them?
The commander of the partisans was Štěpanov Ivan. He was a fair guy. Štěpanov always gave
his own opinion. He was a smaller man, blond, and a peace-loving person. He was strict with
partisans, but wanted to oblige people. He didn’t let anyone get hurt. I really liked him. In 1944
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