Brother sailed for four days, almost didn’t survive
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Milena Cubrová, née Schürer, was born on 26 October 1925 in Písek as the eldest of four children of JUDr. Miroslav Schürer, a notary, and Růžena, née Smetana. She spent most of her childhood and youth in Polná near Havlíčkův Brod and later in Kutná Hora. She graduated from the Kutná Hora Grammar School in 1943. In 1944 she experienced the bombing in Pardubice, where she worked in a pharmacy and lived in a residential area in the family of a pharmacist. From 1946 to 1948 she studied pharmacy at the Faculty of Science. After the war, her family was affected by the repressive policies of the communist regime. After 1948, her brother Přemysl was deployed to the PTP (Auxiliary Technical Battalions). Her uncle, a pharmacist, was deprived of his trade by the communists, which led to his wife’s untimely death. Father Miroslav could not find a suitable job because of his anti-communist views. Milena’s brother Přemysl emigrated to France in 1971 via Algeria, where he travelled across the sea in a pedal boat, according to the story. After her brother’s emigration, Milena was interrogated by State Security and was unaware of his fate for several weeks. Milena’s husband was not allowed to travel abroad on business because of his brother-in-law’s emigration. Milena was not allowed to visit her brother Přemysl in France until 1982, after her husband’s death. Her brother never returned to Czechoslovakia, he died in France in 2007. In 2023 Milena Cubrová was living in Prague.
