The moment you had slackened your resistance they tore you to shreds

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Vladimír Lorenz was born on 20th August in 1925 in Krompachy. He died on March 7th 2010. As a Boy Scout he took part in mobilization of 1938 in fortress Hanicka. After Nazi occupation he joined resistant movement organization Blue Front and later a resistance group of Prince Alfons Paar and teacher Lang in Bechyne, where Lorenz had moved after he was expelled from high school because of refusing to hail like a Nazi. Unfortunately he was revealed in March 1943 and detained. Lorenz was severely interrogated by the Gestapo in Hradec Kralove, Pankrac and finally six months in Peckarna palace. Then he had been transported to Terezin to Small Fortress, were he was waiting for trial. Lorenz had to build roads and an underground factory in Radobil. At the beginning of 1945 in Nuremberg Lorenz was sentenced to death by hanging and decapitation for preparing treason and hiding weapons. Luckily he was saved by bombardment of the prison 23 days before execution. All his life Lorenz was interested in Orient and Japanese combatsmanship. In 1945 he met his lifelong master professor Kitayma from Japan. He had served as his assistant for 19 years. After the communist putsch in 1948 Lorenz was detained for alleged connection with Western powers and two months harshly interrogated in the ill-known “Little House”. But Lorenz sustained torturing and was released without being charged. Later he established a club of judo in Hradec Kralove. In 1965 he made a journey to Japan where he studied combat art by Japanese masters. After he returned home he worked as a professional trainer. He is a founder of aikido in Czechoslovakia.