"So I got the message and I went to the Jizerské Mountains. As the factory [Junkers Flugzeug - Motorenwerke] was relocated there. Before that, there was this big textile factory, so they relocated this factory of ours there. So I came there so I could start working. And when I came to the factory, there was this foreman. He was Austrian, and he greeted me, saying: 'Hitler kaput.' It was such a joyful moment, after that, I was finally able to take it with a pinch of salt."
"So they came to us. And they kept searching. They were confused, but they searched the whole apartment. There were maybe four of them. My mother was trembling with fear because my father had a revolver and that was not allowed. Everything had to be signed in and turned in. Mommy didn't know where the revolver was. So she was afraid, when the SS men came, that they would look for it. They searched everything. Like there were those stairs in our house and there was a curtain under the stairs where the ham was stored . They saw it and asked if they could have some. Mummy said they could. They didn't take all of it, just about two pieces. Mummy said they should take everything, because she was so scared they would find the gun, that was the death penalty, they were executing people for something like that. At the beginning, I went to school in Prachatice. But Prachatice was taken over. So I went to school in Prague for a year, living with my brother's mother. Then the school was moved to Vodnany, so I would go to Vodnany. When the weather was nice, I rode my bike. Otherwise, I walked five kilometers to Strunkovice and back every day. I cycled from Strunkovice to Dvorec, which was a part of Dub. Dvorec and then there is Lhota, two rather small villages, both part of Dub. There were some acquaintances of ours and they called out to me: 'There was a Gestapo at your place.' That was such a terrible moment in my life. I hurried home like crazy. But my parents were fine, because the Gestapo was looking for this other post office employee ce, Mr. Mašek. And they took him away. Somehow, they must have found out he had this documents from the Dux family, those Jews that had been living in our village. As he had their money, their jewelery and other things of value, and they would take it all.”
"Later, I went to the archives [after 1989], I wanted to know why I was expelled from college, despite the fact that my grades were good. There was event this reference card. And those two communists from Dub wrote that the people in the village liked us, that we were hardworking people, but my father voiced his disapproval of the socialist regime. And that was enough."
"We went to the Prague Castle. First we went to the Ministry of Education. They took our student's record books. They would just take it away. And I had a report card, I had excellent grades. And I wondered why I was expelled. At the Ministry of Education, a top official who was in charge of universities had a saying. 'In Rome, do as the Romans do.' That's what she told us."
Ludmila Záveská, née Blumová, was born on 4 June 1924 in Lipovice u Dubu, South Bohemia, to Emanuel and Ludmila Blum. In 1938, due to the closure of the secondary school in Dub, Ludmila Záveská moved to Prague, where she stayed with her mother‘s brother for a year. On March 15, 1939, she witnessed the arrival of Adolf Hitler in Prague. In 1944, she was „totally deployed“ in the Junkers Flugzeug - Motorenwerke aircraft engine factory in Smržovka in the Jizera Mountains, working as an interpreter most of the time. She witnessed the end of the war at home in Dub, where she met American soldiers. Immediately after the end of the war she entered the Faculty of Arts at the Charles University. After the communist coup in February 1948, the so-called „student screenings“ took place at the university. Ludmila Záveská, as well as her future husband Aleš Záveský, refused to join the Communist party. As a result, just before the final exams, they were both expelled from school due to their opposition to the communist rule. In 1949, she got married and together with her husband she started working at the Villa Sklenářka near Hrochův Týnec, where expelled university students could find employment at that time. The couple worked as teachers until their retirement. Aleš Záveský is considered the founder of the environmental education in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. After 1989, Ludmila Záveská was rehabilitated, receiving the title of Ing. along with financial compensation. In 2023 she lived in Prachatice.
