Lubomír Dvořák

* 1930

  • "My first experience was when my dad came into the bedroom and he was crying. I was still in bed and I asked, 'Dad, what happened?' He said, 'President Tomas Garrigue Masaryk died.' So that was the first memory I had."

  • "I was drafted on April 15. As a scout I had been looking forward to serving military service, but it ended up completely different. We arrived in Svatá Dobrotivá, we were dropped off there and the commander said, 'Comrades, there is nothing for you but work, work and barbed wire!' That's unforgettable."

  • "As far as I know, she told me at that time, I was already going out with Marie - my future wife - that an acquaintance met her and told her: 'Watch out for him, we're after him!' I hadn't thought of it, but I didn't realise until sometime later, I don't know if it was before that. But we had an agreement at home that it looked like I should run away. Only my uncle and my mother knew about it, nobody else knew about it. On Sunday I went to Znojmo and they were waiting for me at the train, two men stopped me and took me away. I don't know where, I don't know anything. I just remember that they told me: 'If you don't know anything, we'll keep an eye on you. Sign it here!' So I signed it, and they threw me out, and I don't know anything. I don't know anything at all, my memory failed completely and I walked around Znojmo all night not knowing where to go."

  • "I had friends. I had a friend, Milek (Bohumil) Kiba, who was older than me, and he sort of guided me until he brought me to Scouting in 1938. Although my parents didn't like it very much because they were both Sokol members, but I went to the clubhouse anyway and I was happy there, I liked it awfully. The best part was that afterwards I was to take my promise by the campfire. That was my most beautiful experience, when I was promising upon my honour to love my Czechoslovak Republic as best I could and to serve it faithfully at all times. To help my neighbour like myself and to have a Scout, a Boy Scout, as a brother. And so God help me. And this has been with me all my life. I became a Scout and still feel like a Scout."

  • Celé nahrávky
  • 1

    Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou, 07.03.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 02:26:36
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou, 29.03.2022

    (audio)
    délka: 01:12:32
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I know nothing about the night I was arrested. My memory failed

Lubomír Dvořák, born in 1930 in Jihlava
Lubomír Dvořák, born in 1930 in Jihlava
zdroj: Witness´s archive

Lubomír Dvořák was born on 4 March 1930 in Jihlava. His father Jaroslav Dvořák ran a convenience shop and his mother had a franchise for selling coal and wood. In 1938, the witness joined Cub Scouts group in Jihlava. During the German occupation, witness´s father was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942 for listening to a foreign radio and sentenced to three years in prison. After the Communist coup, the parents‘ franchise was nationalized and revoked. In September 1949, witness´s father was accused of anti-state activities and in a show trial with the group „Veselý Karel and associates“ he was sentenced to an unconditional sentence of 12 years. Later, the arrest of the witness himself is supposed to have taken place in Znojmo. He does not remember anything of this arrest and the subsequent interrogation, because the shock he suffered caused his mental breakdown and memory loss. The interrogation may have been connected with the arrest of the Scouts from Jihlava, especially the convicted Bohumil Kiba, who was a witness´s close friend. He completed his compulsory military service from April 1951 to December 1953 with the units of the Auxiliary Engineering Corps (AEC). As a result of all the events, his mother‘s mental health deteriorated, and she had to be treated in a psychiatric hospital. The witness was subsequently employed in a national enterprise in Jihlava, which carried out road construction, but here too he had difficulties due to his class background and he left his job. After 1989 he joined the „Old Scouts“, searched up the names of his former 60th AEC company members and participated in organizing annual reunions. He celebrated his 90th birthday in 2020 and was living in Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou at the time of recording (March 2022).