An order was an order. Those who resisted could easily get shot

Stáhnout obrázek
František Žebrák was born November 27, 1926 in Koblov in the Hlučín region in a family with six children. His father was a miner and a war veteran from WWI. His mother came from a farm. František‘s parents owned a field and a farm with cattle. As a result of the Munich Agreement, in October 1938 the Hlučín region became part of the German Reich and František thus became a German citizen. The Czech grammar school in Hlučín which he attended became a German school. Just like all boys in the Hlučín region, František joined the organization Hitlerjugend, called „Ha-Yot“ in Hlučín. After February 1944 he was drafted to the wehrmacht just like thousands of other men from the Hlučín region before. After sappers‘ training in Wroclaw his unit joined in the defence of the city against the Red Army in early 1945. František was preparing explosions of bridges, setting land mines and building barricades. He was wounded in Wroclaw at the end of February 1945. In April 1945 he was transferred to the western front near Plauen, where Wehrmacht fought against the US Army. After the surrender of Germany he spent more than a year in POW camps and he returned home to Koblov on June 18, 1946.