Jitka Čampulová

* 1926

  • "Out of the window of the cattle truck, there's a window up there, there's a [hand skinny to] bone. It was holding a string, at the end of which hung an empty tin can. There was the sound of 'Drink, drink, please drink!' over and over again, and somewhere they were silent too. I don't know what nationalities were there. I ran to buy some lemonade to give them something, but three German soldiers were walking around and pointing at us. I couldn't give them anything."

  • "He [Ryneš] became our director afterwards, and I see him as I see him today: he was thin, pale, water-blue eyes, a hard look. He came when we had German. We had a teacher Grünwald for German. She came in that day and said, 'From now on you must greet with your hand raised,' and she raised it herself. The whole class did nothing. We had our hands down. She scolded us with her hands clasped: 'Children, please...' No sooner had she finished saying it than the door opened and Ryneš came in with his hand outstretched... And immediately all our hands flew up.'"

  • "Teacher was standing [in the middle of the classroom] on a step when the door opened abruptly and a civilian, apparently the director, entered, followed by two Gestapo officers. They were terrified. They were tall, thin, and I can still see their shiny boots. They opened the door suddenly and stood at the door. They asked in German about Irena Hešova. She stood up and said, 'I am Irena Hešova.' They told her to pack up and come with them. Irena took her bag and went. We stayed frozen and couldn't do anything, the professor was also all numb from what had happened in his class. I can still see Irena leaving with them..."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Kaplice, 15.11.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 03:07:06
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Kaplice, 16.11.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 03:02:53
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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The Gestapo came straight to the classroom to get a classmate.

Jitka Čampulová during the war
Jitka Čampulová during the war
photo: Witness

Jitka Čampulová, née Pivcová, was born on 6 October 1926 in Staré Město pod Landštejnem into the family of Václav Pivec, a senior responder of the Financial Guard, and his wife Božena, née Št’astná. Both parents came from Deštná near Jindřichův Hradec and met after Václav Pivec returned as a legionary from Russia in 1920. Jitka had a younger brother Jiří. The family moved several times before the war because of her father’s job. Before the war, they lived in Staré Město pod Landštejnem, Schönwald, Aš and Kaplice, from where they fled to Soběslav in 1938, after the occupation of the border area. During the war, the witness attended the business academy in Tábor and witnessed how the Gestapo came to her classroom to get her classmate Irena Hešová, whose parents were executed in Mauthausen during the Heydrichiad. Three local teachers and the headmaster were also executed. Her schooling was ended early by the forced labour of the entire class. In 1943-1945 she was employed at the Lada sewing machine factory in Soběslav. After the war, the family returned to Kaplice, where Jitka Čampulová witnessed the deportation of the German population. In 1950, she married Záboj Čampula, who was expelled from the law faculty for supporting President Edvard Beneš in February 1948. She worked all her life as a clerk, lived a family life and paid little attention to politics. She never joined the Communist Party and did not participate in any politically motivated events. She raised two children and lived in Kaplice in 2023.