No one knew, what move to make
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Pravoslav Batěk was born on 21 September, 1921 in Hodonín, where his father worked as a teacher. Later the family moved to Oldřichovice near Napajedla, where his father worked as a school director. The witness finished an elementary school in Napajedla and then applied for a teacher´s institute in Kroměříž, where he graduated in 1940. After graduation Pravoslav Batěk began forced labour in Napajedla, Hodonín and other places. In 1942 he was established a teaching trainee in Napajedla. During war the Batěks joined the resistance; they cooperated with a general Vojtěch B. Luža. After an agreement they helped refugees, brought immigrants across the German border and worked as a connection with partisans in the neighbourhood. Since August 1944 until the end of war the Batěks were hiding a Soviet partisan, Valentina Tumiska, who also joined the resistance. In 1943 the witness married Věra Žďárová and had three children. After war he worked as a teacher, but for refusing to enter the communist party, they moved around several times and his children had to leave the high school studies. In 1953 the family was violently displaced to Střílky, where they lived, to Veselí nad Moravou to a gypsy colony, where they stayed for a while. The sister Vlasta was imprisoned and charged with organising border crossings, but during the prison transfer she managed to escape and in 1951 immigrated to USA. Also due to this fact the family was constantly persecuted. Pravoslav Batěk retired in 1981. In 2005 he got an acknowledgement from the Czech minister of defence and in 2015 was awarded a Russian federation medal as a war veteran. Pravoslav Batěk passed away on May, the 25th, 2017.
