I don’t remember dad. But I know he was an admirable man
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Jana Rejtharová, née Žampachová, was born on 23 January 1940 in Prostějov to Maria and Josef Žampach. Her grandfather Augustin Vlach, the chief of Sokol, was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941. On November 7, 1941, he left with a transport to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he died on March 22, 1942. Her father, Josef Žampach, an air force lieutenant, army officer and technical clerk at ČKD, served from 1939 in the leadership of the Union of Airmen of the Czechoslovak Republic. He helped Czechoslovak airmen to go abroad to fight against Nazi Germany. He was arrested by the Gestapo on April 4, 1940 and executed by guillotine on April 8, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee. Her uncle Augustin Vlach Jr., a former officer of the Czechoslovak Air Force and designer of the Brno Armaments Factory, became involved in helping emigrants after 1948. He was arrested by State Security (StB) on 5 January 1949, and allegedly committed suicide by jumping out of a window during interrogation on 7 January 1949. However, his family is convinced that the interrogators killed him. Jana Rejtharová studied internal trade, tourism and catering in Mariánské Lázně. She and her husband raised two daughters. She lived in Prague in 2023.
