"Suddenly, someone rang the bell and it was a man my father remembered from Terezín. He knew he was not a good person. He met Hlaváček at a meeting in Liberec and Hlaváček told him, 'Be careful of this guy, if you meet him, he's from the State Security.' So dad knew, but he was afraid if he was armed, because he wanted him to supply some information. Dad, as an old boy scout, when the guy left, secretly followed him. He found out that he was standing at the station with a Liberec Volga license plate, probably from State Security. He got in and they drove off."
"My sister and I were on the train. I remember learning the stations as they went along. We stayed overnight in Prague. There was Lojzička, she was perhaps Mrs. Vlčková's maid, and she lived at Žizkov, Křížkovského 5. We stayed with them. She always gave us pastries with jam. The next day we went to Terezín, that is, to Bohušovice. There we walked along the Ohře River to Terezín. The first visit was in the introductory part. I know that we always stopped there. We brought some food, had a conversation with my father. We were there about ten times."
"1940 in September or October. Dad writes in hisemoirs that mom asked him what time he was coming. I guess mom was surprised he didn't come. At ten o'clock in the morning the SS came for him. There was a heavy door closing at the school. Dad managed, when he knew they had come for him, to open them, even though it was difficult. He managed to get a head start before the Gestapo came out behind him. He was in good physical condition. I remember he trained a lot. He ran, first he threw off his coat, his briefcase, so he could run better. He ran towards the brickyard behind Semily. He knew it well and it was towards Jesenné and Vysoké, where he and mother used to meet."
Zdeňka Zalabáková, née Čurdová, was born on 27 February 1935 in Jesenné near Semily into the family of Karel Čurda, a teacher and national socialist. Both parents, Karel and Zdeňka, nee Skrbková, were scouts. Their daughter Dagmar was born in 1938. After the occupation, Karel Čurda joined the anti-Nazi resistance. When arrested by the Gestapo in 1940, he escaped and went into hiding. His brother Jaroslav Čurda was executed in 1942. After the Heydrichiad, his parents and his wife were taken to an internment camp in Svatobořice. In 1943, Karel Čurda voluntarily went to save his loved ones. Resistance fighter Karel Hlaváček personally negotiated with K. H. Frank exceptional conditions of imprisonment. The group concerned, including Karel Čurda and doc. Vladimír Krajina, were imprisoned in the Small Fortress in Terezín until the end of the war. His wife and parents were released according to the Gestapo’s promise. In the 1950s, the family faced oppression from the regime. In 1950, a son, Karel, was born. The father, Karel Čurda, was followed by State Security. Zdeňka became a teacher. Under pressure, she joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia at the end of the 1950s, as did her husband Milan Zalabák. Eventually, Karel Čurda also joined the Communist Party, hoping to end the constant State Security surveillance. She left the Communist Party after the Soviet occupation in 1968. In 1963, the Zalabák family had a daughter Zuzana. Zdeňka Zalabáková retired in 1987. In 2023, she lived with her husband in Liberec and had two grandchildren.
Zdeňka Zalabáková née Čurdová with her younger sister Dáša, in the background grandmother Marie Skrbková in front of the house in Jesenné u Semil No. 174 during the war
Zdeňka Zalabáková née Čurdová with her younger sister Dáša, in the background grandmother Marie Skrbková in front of the house in Jesenné u Semil No. 174 during the war
