My father had been hiding Masaryk in our attic
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Zdeňka kovářová was born on December 31, 1935 in the village of Kostelec near the city of Zlín. In 1941, after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, her father dared to hide a bust of T.G. Masaryk - a former president - which had been a part of a WWI memorial in Kostelec. In his attic he had built a compartment in which he had hidden the bust. At the end of the war, retreating German soldiers had taken over their house and the family was afraid of reprisals in case the soldiers would find the bust. That didn’t happen, as just a few days later, the war was over. In June 1945, both the memorial and the bust were unveiled yet again. But the bust didn’t stay for long, as in 1953, the first president of Czechoslovakia had been assigned for removal by the Communists. It didn’t return to its place until 1993, after freedom had been restored. At the time the interview had been taken (2014), the witness had been living in Zlín.
