“And daddy was down the Alexandr mine in Hrdlovka, then in the Gottwald mine and that was cancelled. They no longer mine there. It was a dangerous deep mine. As there was the Nelson catastrophe next to it in 1934, 144 miners stayed down there and amongst them also my uncle, as there were gases, which exploded. My daddy got luckily only buried and they brought him in the morning with his back badly wounded. Well and then the terrible occupation times. We were ready in the protectorate… daddy had his work and housing, we planned to run away same as many of our neighbours and other inhabitants. But when they seized Bohemia too, the protectorate was such, as daddy used to say: ‚Well mummy, it is all the same. Hitler is everywhere. Here at least I got a job and housing.´”
“Daddy worked in a resistance movement, as he worked down the mine and had explosives available. He was the leader of the mine and he used to steal explosives and give them to the resistance fighters. Someone leaked the information and they actually imprisoned sixty resistance fighters from Hrdlovka and Lom in Mostecko region. First he was interrogated in Most. It was quite bad and looked like he gets the death penalty. But all the documentation of the main process were in Dresden. And at the time there was a huge air raid and everything burnt to ashes. So they lost the essential written documents and there was no death penalty. But it was still terrible, they shifter them to Bavaria, Straubing and my poor daddy had to stay there.”
“In 1945 finally the liberation happened and we (daughters with the mother – editor´s note) didn’t know of our father at all. All through that time we knew nothing at all. Just the fact that he got away from the Most prison. What was terrible, when the trips from Prague to Germany were organised, to get our people from the concentration camp. And that was already a week after the coup and we still knew nothing and daddy was nowhere, that was terrible and I will not forget the feeling until I die. And now someone was beating on our doors at night, that was on the eighth day and daddy was brought still wearing his prison dress. Of course he was in a horribly poor state.“
Zdeňka Staňková spent her childhood in a village of Hrdlovka. Her daddy worked first in the mine Nelson, where was an explosion in 1934, during which 144 miners died including her uncle. The father suffered a back injury, but survived the catastrophe. Later he stole explosives down the mine and gave them to the resistance fighters. After disclosure he ended up in a concentration camp in Bavaria. Zdeňka Staňková with her one year younger sister attended Czech school for only two years. Following father´s conviction they had to move to a German organised school, where they were bullied by teachers and Germans mates. After war she started a training. At the age of 19 years she got to know her future husband, whom she married in 1951 and had two kids together. Zdeňka Staňková lived with her first and only love for 56 years. They moved to Kadaň and later to Místo. Their children studied high schools and nowadays have their own families. After a tragic death of her husband Zdeňka Staňková went to a retirement home, where she is allegedly treated as a noble woman.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
