Vlasta Jiránková

* 1923

  • "My sister and I went to Nymburk where our aunt was who made us clothes. Trains stopped running at noon, though and we couldn't get from Nymburk to Všetaty. We stayed with our aunt for like three days and had to sleep in the cellar on potatoes. The Germans were bombing and we just prayed for the Russians to come. Then they came in tanks and we were so happy. Those were beautiful days, we were already wearing summer clothes. The elder blossomed in the gardens, and we picked it and threw the blossoms onto the tanks."

  • "When I completed my apprenticeship, I started working on the railway, in the station canteen. I recall these trains without windows that carried prisoners. They had mess tins and they would lower them on a string from the vents for us to put water or coffee in them. It was forbidden - if a German guard walking along the train saw you, he could arrest you."

  • "I was fifteen years old when the Germans arrived. I know it was in March, and I know it was 15 March and it was very cold. We stood on the walkway and watched the Germans march through the village. They were poorly dressed; they only had these light coats, and they were terribly cold. Then they seized the warehouses here and then did they get dressed. We stood along the walkway and we all cried, really. Not just children, adults too. When we were told the Germans were coming, everyone made sure to see them."

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    Liberec, 26.11.2023

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We gave food to prisoners going through despite a risk of imprisonment

The newlywed Jiráneks, 24 June 1950
The newlywed Jiráneks, 24 June 1950
photo: Witness's archives

Vlasta Jiránková was born in Žižkovo Pole in the Vysočina Region on 3 September 1923 and spent her childhood in Všetaty. Having graduated from the primary and high school, she decided to become a cook and entered apprenticeship in Brandýs nad Labem in 1939. From 1943, she worked as a cook at the Všetaty railway station canteen and tried to help prisoners transported from concentration camps at the end of the war. She stayed at the station canteen until 1946 when she honoured her friend’s request and left for Liberec. She found a new job in the Stalingrad restaurant. She married Oldřich Jiránek in June 1950 and went on to work at the school canteen in Jeřáb in 1953. Having retired in 1980, she spent time with her family and grandchildren. She lived in Liberec at the time of filming (2023).