I went to wash clothes with my mother and a German shot at us.
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Miroslav Bednář was born on 20th June 1933 in Nekoř, in the foothills of the Orlické Mountains. His father Mikuláš (1901-1988) worked as a carpenter, among others on the construction of the Pastviny dam, his mother Václava (1902-1961) was a seamstress and he had a sister Jaroslava (1938-2024). He was a direct witness of several events during the Second World War. Nekoř is located very close to the national road, so it was busy there at the end of the war. At first, German families fled from the borderlands through the village. On May 5, German transports moved along the state road, withdrawing from the approaching Soviet army, and on May 8, the surrounding fields were flooded with German soldiers and civilians. The traffic peaked on May 9 with the arrival of the first Soviet tank. Miroslav and his mother then miraculously escaped death when a German soldier fired at them. The Soviet army brought not only the joy of liberation to Nekoř, but also bitterness when one of its members shot a local citizen. Miroslav trained as an auto mechanic in Žamberk and after the war, in 1953-1955, he joined OEZ Letohrad, where he repaired cars and worked as a driver of various vehicles. In his work he drove workers and Soviet soldiers to construction sites, militiamen, agitators, directors or skiers, over whom OEZ held patronage. In 1956, he married Zdeňka Mertelíková (1936-2022) and they had two children in 1958 and 1961. In 2024 he was living in Nekoř.
