Jiří Šulitka

* 1932

  • "We ran across the road to the German customs house, where we were in the cellar. It didn't take long before the German customs house became a hospital. The wounded started coming there, they were bringing the wounded there. The wives of the customs officers immediately came in white uniforms with red crosses on their caps and started treating them. My dad carried a knife, so he would cut the uniforms to get to the wound. Then they brought in a relative, Zdeněk Mach, who had a nasty wound below the knee. We were afraid that his leg would be cut off. I was taking care of Zdeněk Gerhard, who was three years older than me. He was training to repair bicycles and motorcycles with the Maršíks, we went to Scout together. He had lacerated lungs."

  • "One day my father got a call to come to the district office in Náchod with his trade license. It had to hang framed under a glass in the shop. So dad had to take it apart. Someone asked him at the office window what he wanted. He said he was invited. The clerk asked him if he had his trade license and to give it to him. Then he took it, pulled out the last drawer, threw it in and said, 'It's done, you can go now.' At that point we had to close the shop because then the inspection would come and we would have to pay a fine."

  • "They told me, 'There are three SS members in the cellar. Go sit on the stairs and if something happens, come here.' There were two guys who spoke Slovak, I understood them. Then it turned out that they were from the village of Baška in Petržalka, where they had to compulsorily join the SS units. So they were unpicking their epaulets from their sleeves. There was one officer, he had a broken arm above the elbow. A nasty, stiff wound, he had a fever, he didn't say a word. I don't know what happened to them afterwards. It was said that they were taken to the brewery in Náchod and died there."

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Pardubice, 23.11.2021

    (audio)
    délka: 02:16:00
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - HRK REG ED
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My friend was yelling at me that the SS were shooting people

Jiří Šulitka, 1951
Jiří Šulitka, 1951
zdroj: Contemporary witness's archive

Jiří Šulitka was born on February 18, 1932 in Náchod. His father Ladislav (1902-1968) was a butcher and a sausage maker, his mother Ludmila, née Špreňarová (1904-1984), helped in the family butcher shop. The family lived in Malé Poříčí, which became part of Náchod after the war. From a young age, his father encouraged his son to take an interest in politics. His mindset was also shaped by his wartime experiences, including the execution of his uncle Jan Špreňar for participating in anti-Nazi resistance. During the war, the textile factory in Malé Poříčí was reoriented to the production of aircraft engines and many people from Germany worked there. On May 9, 1945, Jiří Šulitka became an eyewitness of a combat in Náchod-Běloves, which was instigated by drunken members of the SS. More than two dozen Soviet soldiers and several Czech civilians were left dead as the result of this combat. A cruel retaliation followed a day later, when several dozen SS members were tortured and executed in the Náchod brewery. During the very first post-war holidays Jiří helped with a scout troop in the border area during the harvest. In 1947, the family moved to Náchod and Jiří studied at the business academy there from 1947 to 1951. Then he joined an office in Hronov. At that time the communists deprived his father of his trade. After the mandatory military training in 1953-1954, Jiří married Anna, née Vejrková (1931-2014) in 1956. The couple had two daughters, born in 1957 and 1964, and the family lived in Velké Poříčí. He worked in MEZ Náchod, then in Konzervárny Nové Město nad Metují. In the spring of 1968, he founded a branch of the Club of Committed Non-Party Members (KAN) in Hronov together with Jiří Horyna, Jaroslav Němeček and Jaroslav Novák. They spread awareness and organized lectures. However, their activities were interrupted by the entry of Warsaw Pact troops on August 21, 1968. Jiří and his colleagues immediately started to produce anti-occupation posters and distribute them around the city. During the inspections, he described „fraternal aid“ as a military attack and was fired from his job. For three years, he worked as a concrete finisher at the precast concrete plant of the District Construction Company (OSP) Náchod, in Poříčí. Then he worked at OSP as a supply clerk. After the revolution in 1989, he immediately became involved in municipal politics and served as mayor of Velké Poříčí from 1990 to 2002, where he also lived in 2021.