The last time I saw my dad was when he was body-searched by Gestapo men
Renata Roušalová, née Včeláková, was born February 23, 1930. She comes from the family of doctor Jan Včelák and she grew up together with her brother Ivo who is three years younger. Her mother was the daughter of a university professor. Jan Včelák held a high-ranking post in Masaryk League against Tuberculosis. The whole family lived in a house at the foot of the Petřín Hill in Prague which at the same time served as the headquarters of this organization. Jan Včelák got acquainted with other resistance fighters here and in spring 1942 he joined them in helping the paratroopers. His children did not know much about his activities. He was arrested on July 3, 1942, and his wife one day later. They were both murdered in the concentration camp Mauthausen in October 1942. Both siblings stayed with their parents’ friends over the summer holiday, and at the beginning of October they became interned by the Nazis. They became so-called “Children from Svatobořice.” At first they were sent to the Jenerálka chateau in Prague and then they were interned in Svatobořice in southern Moravia. They spent the end of the war in Planá nad Lužnicí, and then they stayed with the Hubert family in Soběslav. The siblings got separated after the war. Renata was entrusted to her mother’s relatives, and her brother was brought up by the relatives of their father. Renata began to study grammar school, but it was difficult for her to catch up with her three-year absence from school. She eventually graduated from a hospitality management school, and then she spent her professional life working in the hospitality industry. Her brother Ivo worked as a land surveyor and he died in 2002.
