“Well, I came nearly all the way from Meziříčko to the forest - and there was a German! The Germans were everywhere, below Krasonice, and in Humperk, everywhere. He stopped me, he poked me in my stomach with his rifle like this and he yelled at me. I didn’t know what he wanted, but since my dad worked and taught in Vienna, he could speak German. We had optional classes of German at school in Budějovice, and I was taking them for about a year. But the way our teacher worked with us… we told him about some article, and that was enough. But I knew something. And so I said to this German – Ich over there meine Großmutter and Großvater and Ich zu Hause Domamil – and he pushed me and then he let me go. But I was carrying my son on my back and I walked a few steps and I realized: If he shoots at me, the boy gets hit, doesn’t he? I thus took my son down from my back and I held him in my arms and I carried him all the way home to the gamekeeper’s lodge. But I came there and the house was taken over by Germans. Well, they yelled at me. There was certain Ambrož who was with the policemen here. He could speak German and he was translating for me. They were asking if my husband was going out at nights or if he was at home? Well, I told them that he had to be at home, because I was pregnant so why would he go anywhere, right?! And so they got up and left. They let it be. And that’s how we were saved.”
“As late as in 1944 they deployed the group Spelter in Myslibořice. Their assignment was allegedly intelligence work. But this group was betrayed and they were overwhelmed by Germans. One of the paratroopers got killed near the gamekeeper’s lodge. The others saved themselves. And later they brought the rest of them to our lodge, because there was already the partisan group Ivan here, which was led by lieutenant Alfons Douda – a postmaster. But at first, František Doležílek came here… oh, where did he come from? My husband brought him home, introduced him to me and told me: ‘If by any chance I am not at home and he needs to spend the night here, he will stay here.’ This František Doležílek… all the time I believed that they were friends, because grandpa was from the Walachia region as well. But I only knew that his name was Franta, nothing else. This Franta Doležílek was a radio mechanic by trade and he worked as a seller and repairman of radios in the company Fiala in Želetava. At first he came to Želetava, but people there knew that he used to live there before, and so they sent him to Šašovice and from there he was sent to our lodge.”
“I came to the yard and it was full of Russians and all of them were pumping water and washing themselves. And then it got dark and they left. But one Russian who was wearing red trousers arrived there on a horse, he was probably an officer, and he wanted a place to sleep. Well, fine. My grandpa, well – we had one room and one bedroom, but we did not sleep there. Grandpa showed him in there and the Russian said nyet, nyet, and he tied his horse in the barn and he lay down there on some hay. Well, grandpa brought him a pillow and a blanket there, and the man slept there. I have it written here, too. Then in the morning, when I got up, I went to feed the hens, and the pig and goats that we had there. I could see the Russian man riding away on his horse, and I really have it written here – it was the happiest day in my life (with tears in her eyes) when I saw the Russian man riding away and disappearing in the distance. That was the end of the war... Well, it was. That was the end of the war.”
Božena Kopcová, née Kosmáková, was born on September 13, 1920 in the village Luže near Vysoké Mýto. In 1941 she married Josef Kopec who was a gamekeeper in the village Domamil. Božena and her husband joined the resistance movement. They were providing hiding places for paratroopers from the group Spelter, who were deployed on May 4-5th 1944, in the gamekeeper’s lodge and in neighbouring buildings. Apart from the paratroopers who gradually formed the resistance group Lenka-jih, the couple were also hiding weapons and explosives. An illegal transmitter was broadcasting from their home. In 2017 Božena Kopcová was awarded the Golden Linden Decoration by the ministry of defence for her resistance activity. She died on January 12, 2022.
