“I have only met Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk when he was transported on a barge. Meanwhile, I have waited for the boatman to take me across the river with my bike – I used to ride my bike to school every Monday. Later, I saw him at his deathbed when us as students decided to visit him in Lány, covering the costs ourselves.”
“I was surprised about Vašek Rybáček wanting one and only thing from me: making anything in my power to have his dad and brother released. For me, this was an impossible task. I lived in a different region, under different Gestapo administrative unit and I knew nobody who would have had any influence on the German authorities. Therefore I asked Josef Sklenička for help. He found some way and the dad and brother of Vašek Rybáček were released in a week or two.”
“Vašek Rybáček worried horribly for his family not knowing anything and suffering because of him. My brother had to exert great effort to prevent Vašek from turning himself in. He had to fight this each and every night he visited him.”
Karel Hošek was born on the 25th of October 1919 in Skryje near Rakovník, Central Bohemia. In the fall of 1939, became a chemistry student, he participated in the mass anti-German demonstrations. Following the closure of universities, he spent the rest of the war in Skryje. In the spring of 1942 Karel got involved in the underground movement and for two and a half years helped two resistance members wanted by the Gestapo. After the war, he graduated from an agricultural university until 1953 taught at agricultural schools and then volunteered for a job at Jáchymov‘s uranium mines. He died on September 7, 2019.
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!
