I still keep my father’s shirt to this day
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Jiřina Jarošová, née Ježková, was born on 3 October 1929, in Dvůr Králové. She spent her childhood in nearby Doubravice, where her father taught at an elementary school. Her father, Karel Ježek, was devoted to Sokol from a young age. Gradually, he brought his wife Marie and his daughter there. In 1938, both parents participated in the 10th all-Sokol gathering in Prague. The Czechoslovak Sokol community then sent her father to a weekly military training course in Tišnov near Brno. After the break-up of Czechoslovakia and the establishment of the protectorate, the father engaged in the resistance organization Defense of the nation, then in the Sokol organization Jindra, and later in S21B. He was involved in helping the radio operator Jiří Potůček from the Silver A paratrooper group after he had to escape from Ležáky in June 1942 during the Heydrich rampage. On 2 July 1942, the Gestapo arrested Karel Ježek. He was executed within a week. Jiřina and her mother survived the rest of the war without dramatic complications, mainly thanks to the help of the mother’s brothers and other people. In 1948, the witness graduated. She also participated in the 11th all-Sokol gathering in Prague, where the Sokols expressed their disagreement with the rising communist regime. The witness graduated from the Faculty of Education. She and her husband Vojtěch got married in 1953, and 13 years later, they moved to Napajedla with their two children.
