As we were walking through the forest, the path was stained with dad’s blood
Antonín Burdych was born in 1934 and at the time of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich he was thus eight years old. Nor Antonín nor his brother Vladimír, who was four years older, were aware that their parents were members of the resistance group S212B and that they were hiding radio transmitter operator Jiří Potůček in their house. Based on information from a Czech doctor who denounced the family, the Gestapo learnt about Potůček‘s hiding place and stormed into the house on June 30, 1942. Antonín‘s father attempted to warn Potůček and he ran away from the house. The shooting did alert the paratrooper to the danger, but Antonín‘s father paid with his life for this and he died as a result of severe bleeding. Antonín‘s mother, who was watching the entire incident, suffered a heart stroke and she was not even able to part with her sons who just came home from school at this very moment. Jiří Potůček managed to shoot his way out of the surrounded house and escape. Later, the boys were only able to say good-bye to their grandmother who was not at home at the fateful moment. In spite of that, the grandmother and her husband were executed in the prison in Pardubice together with the mother of the two boys, and the same fate met their other relatives who have also assisted in hiding the paratrooper. Jiří Potůček was shot to death two days later by a Czech policeman when he was sleeping. The brothers were then brought up by their relatives. Antonín Burdych raised three sons. He worked in the company Krkonoše Furniture and he lives in Rtyně v Podkrkonoší. He inherited his cheerful and optimistic nature from his father.