Blanka Včeláková

* 1926

  • "There we waited half a year for the court. In June we had a show trial in Liberec held in the People's Park. As viewers, we had young militiamen coming in. The chairs were set up as in a theater. In front of us, there was a big board and lying on it was one rifle and a revolver. We were accused of planning the overthrow of the Republic. They pointed at these weapons. ‘How many of you were in this group?’ ‘Twenty-seven, but there were also members of the police in the group, they all had guns, but they could not be accounted for by the court. The trial lasted three days and I was sentenced to sixteen years of imprisonment. In that court, I said that I had been beaten and forced to make my testimony. I said that if they had said that I killed my father, I would have signed it. None of the guys – and they had been beaten - no one said it, just I said it, for those slaps. ‘Did they beat you?’ ‘Yes’. ‘Did they beat you?’ ‘Yes’. ‘Did they beat you?’ ‘Yes’. Take a note, they said to the secretary."

  • "There was hard work everywhere, that’s true. One was consoling the other and somehow we were united by our misfortune. We also sought humorous situations to be able to laugh a little. There was a lot of unhappiness. For instance, there was a needy mother in Pardubice who had two children and those children committed suicide, because they were bullied at school. So she lost her children. Or there was another case in Pardubice, she was Slovak and they came to announce to her as she was leaving the building: 'Well, last week we hanged your husband'. She immediately fainted."

  • "We had to sign a release receipt that we're going home and were transported on an open car in the evening at nine o'clock. Our train was going around midnight. I was handed out 500 crowns. I had a string bag and a borrowed wallet in that bag, borrowed clothes from a girl from Jablonec. I came to the station and since I hadn’t eaten for a whole one day and I was thirsty and hungry, I wanted to get some food somewhere. But they didn’t have anything at the station in the evening. There was only a pub with beer on a tap. I said: 'Well, I'll have a small beer'. Now I was standing there and the bar tender said: 'I haven’t seen anybody paying for a small beer with a 500-crown bill, yet'."

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    Jablonec nad Nisou, 27.10.2013

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We were together, united by our misfortune

Blanka Včeláková
Blanka Včeláková
zdroj: foto Martin Reichl

Mrs. Blanka Včeláková was born on 22 June, 1926, in Jablonec nad Nisou. Since her childhood, she was a member of the Scout. In 1938, after the annexation of the Sudetenland, the family moved to Hradec Králové. After finishing secondary school and a vocational school for female professions in 1943, she worked in the office at the railway station in Hradec Králové. In May 1945, she returned to Jablonec nad Nisou together with her father and sister. Until the banning of the Scout in 1948, she was an active girl scout. In the fall of 1949, she randomly met a tram driver who was engaged in a resistance group which she wanted to join. However, the group was revealed even before any rebellious actions materialized. In December 1949, Blanka was arrested. A court in Liberec sentenced her to sixteen years in prison in a group process that took place in June 1950. She served her term in prisons in Česká Lípa, Pankrác, Kladno, Molitorov, Pardubice, a military hospital in Pankrác and a prison in the Slovak town of Zeliezovce. She was paroled in the summer of 1957 and after returning to Jablonec nad Nisou, she worked in the glass-cutting and laundry industries. Mrs. Blanka Včeláková, one of the founding members of the local branch of the Confederation of Political Prisoners, currently lives in Jablonec nad Nisou.