Father was imprisoned in a forced labor camp for two years without the communists accusing him of anything
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Olga Řeháčková is the last surviving direct relative of the famous entrepreneurial generation of the Pilnáček family, whose history dates back to 1795. She was born on December 22, 1937. Her grandfather was J. V. B. Pilnáček, the owner of a soap, cosmetics, washing powder and candle factory and also the mayor of Hradec Králové between 1929 and 1942. Her father was J. P. Z. Pilnáček, co-owner of the factory. The prosperous family business was expropriated by the communists in 1949, the unique new machines from Switzerland were broken and the production was transferred to the state-owned company Kosmos Čáslav. The grandfather died because of injuries inflicted on him by unknown perpetrators who brutally beat him in the park. The crime was never solved. The father was interned in a forced labour camp (TNP) for almost two years. The family was later deported from Hradec Králové to Stará Huta in Orlické Hory. As an excellent expert, the father never returned to his profession and supported himself by doing auxiliary labour jobs. In the 1950s, he was senselessly and unfairly accused of embezzling 1,300,000 crowns, which he was supposed to embezzle from his former factory. The family was thus forced to live on the subsistence minimum during their entire active working life, because the alleged amount owed was deducted from the father’s salary. The witness had problems getting into studies at all, and she only managed to graduate from secondary school due to the coincidence of favourable circumstances in Prague. The witness’s husband worked as a doctor. Now (2018) Olga lives in Prague. The company was returned to the family in restitution. However, the original production could no longer be resumed. Reconstructed buildings are rented out to business entities, and the administration of the building is taken care of by the son of the witness, Jakub Řeháček.
