From the log cabin under the Paprsek chalet
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Anna Vávrová, maiden name Hirnichová, was born on July 18, 1929, to parents of German nationality in Velké Vrbno (Gross-Würben in German). She spent her childhood in this mountain village on the southern slope of the Rychleby Mountains. During World War II, her three brothers enlisted in the Wehrmacht, and two of them, Oskar and Franz, lost their lives at the front. After the war, the family was exempted from deportation because of the father’s work in the lead mines. With few exceptions, no new settlers moved to Velké Vrbno due to its mountainous location. The vast majority of the houses in the village were demolished after the Hirnichs also left. Today, only the former school, the gamekeeper’s lodge and the building of the Financial guard remain preserved. In the 1960s and 1970s, two brothers of the witness (Herbert and Ruda), her sister Regina and mother Aurelie, left for the Federal Republic of Germany. Out of the eight-member family, only the witness and her brother Alois stayed in Czechoslovakia. From the age of fourteen, Anna worked in various places as a maid and later as a cleaner in the Šumperk sanatorium. In 1951, she married Václav Vávra, and together they raised their three children - Anna, Jiřina and Václav. At the time of filming (2021), she lived in Šumperk.
