It wasn’t a great adventure, it was pure luck

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Arnošt Polák comes from a Jewish family. Thanks to the Quakers, he and his brother were sent to Britain (he was 16 years old at that time). The departure to Britain probably saved his life - the rest of his family died in a concentration camp. For the next two years Arnošt Polák worked in England as an agricultural worker. In 1941, however, by the age of eighteen, he enrolled in the Czechoslovak army and went through the basic military training. Then he applied for the Royal Air Force and after accomplishing aviation and communications courses he was accepted. He was assigned to the 311th bomber squad in the rank of a sergeant. After the end of the war he returned to Czechoslovakia and served with the Czechoslovak air force as a radio operator. In 1946 he left the army and returned to Britain where he opened up a shop. Arnošt Polák passed away on September 2017.