Jiří Parduba

* 1923  †︎ 2017

  • "His name was, I think, Hýl. He interrogated my dad. At that time, the Communists had their office in the so-called red villa, where the Lower square is, there is a memorial. So in that red villa, where he beat him with a chain and knocked his teeth out. And Dad really had his teeth knocked out. "

  • "On that square in Prague. Then when the procession passed there, Gottwald was in the stands. We shouted, 'Long live the republic!' As we walked around the stands, we began to chant: 'Long live President Beneš!' ... And Gottwald greeted us. For example, I specifically and my friends went in Wallachian costume. When he saw a group of costumed Wallachians leading our county, which was called František Palacký County, he had that smile, I still see it. He had his gob contorted and laughed. He thought we were going to chant something else. But we just started chanting in front of him. Then after that ... we walked through the square and the people of Prague came to us and said: “You idiots What did you chant? Do you know what will happen?" We had no choice but to scatter into the alleys so that they would not catch us. The secret police was already active.

  • "We knew that there were power lines to the Vsetín Zbrojovka from several sides, because Zbrojovka needed a huge amount of electricity for its weapons production. We thought we had to do something about it and we had to help the Zbrojovka guys to disrupt it. And also that we received a blessing from Valin that it would be feasible to cut the pillars and prevent the supply of electricity to Zbrojovka. We cut one pillar at Žamboška, which was iron, had four legs, four feet. Then the whole pole fell and of course the electricity supply was cut off. We knew that the next line to Zbrojovka leads through wooden poles that lead through fields and meadows above Ohrada. We said that this is the only place we can still help to the Zbrojovka guys, so that there is no power for them. "

  • "Our activity was that we put explosives under the tracks. The tracks would be blown up and the train could not cross. Especially when it came to military trains, German transports, which then went to Slovakia and probably to the Eastern Front. So we on the one hand, we were loading charges and blowing up the tracks. "

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    Vsetín, 03.06.2016

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    duration: 02:46:17
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None of us wanted rewards or honors. We fought for the homeland

Jiří Parduba, (1923-2017)
Jiří Parduba, (1923-2017)
photo: Oficiální web města Vsetín, 2008

Jiří Parduba was born on April 22, 1923 in Vsetín. His father made a living as a barber and his mother was a hairdresser. The witness and both of his older brothers underwent a patriotic upbringing and went to the Sokol in Vsetín. He graduated from the local grammar school and then attended a teacher training institute in Valašské Meziříčí. In 1942 he graduated and took up his first teaching position. A year later, he was fully deployed (forced labour) to Zbrojovka Vsetín. He joined the domestic anti-Nazi resistance and under the command of Valentin Gába took part in several diversionary events. On May 4, 1945, he took part in the Vsetín uprising. After the war, he became a member of the Czechoslovak Union of Anti-Fascist Resistance, from where he resigned for political reasons in 1948. After February 1948, his father was imprisoned for anti-state activities in Uherské Hradiště. The witness refused to join the Communist Party and was forced to change several school locations throughout Wallachia. After the fall of the communist regime, he was one of the restorers of Sokol in Vsetín. In the years 1990-1994, he was a member of the Vsetín City Council and was responsible for the restoration of the T. G. Masaryk Memorial. He died on February 2, 2017 in Vsetín.