They wanted to lure us out, that mum wants to see us
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Hana Jírová, née Kotrbová, was born on 8 February, 1934 in Běchovice near Prague. Her both parents worked as teachers, her father František Kotrba was a member of Sokol. He father participated in the resistance by illustrating a resistance magazine In fight and helping acquiring supplies for paratroopers. After their revelation in a crypt of the St. Cyril and Method in June 1942 the gestapo was searching her father. In July 1942 during a summer stay of the whole family in Ouběnice her father was captured; he was meant to hand over fake documents to Břetislav Lyčka, a resistance fighter, who was hiding at a local Ouběnice carpenter during Heydrichiade. The gestapo wanted to use František Kotrba to lure Břetislav Lyčka out of cover, but both resistance fighters committed a suicide by shooting before capture on 21 July 1942. A day later, the mother of a witness was arrested and transported to Terezin Small Fortress and put to death together with other resistance fighters in revenge for Heydrich´s assassination on 24 October 1942 in Mauthausen. Hana and her brother were shortly taken care of by father´s uncle in Drachkov. In August 1942 the children were taken up by grandparents from Nová Dubeč, but the gestapo took them in a few months. They were placed into the home in Prague Jenerálka and in April 1944 transported into internment camp in Svatobořice, where they remained until the end of war. After liberation the witness was put in care of her aunt. Since 1947 she lived in Prague Smíchov. She studied in Prague and until retirement in 1986 she worked in the radio. She raised two daughters with her husband. Hana Jírová died on August 21, 2022.
