Sieg Heil! I saw Hitler in Brno and thousands of raised hands
Zdeňka Zavřelová, née Švábenská, was born into a Czech family in Brno. Her father was a civilian employee of the military administration. In 1925 the family moved to Šumperk in northern Moravia, where at that time mainly Germans lived. Her father worked as a clerk for the local 13th infantry regiment. Zdeňka grew up in a Czech community and attended a Czech school. In 1934 she returned to Brno with her parents, where she finished upper primary school and graduated from a two-year business school. She witnessed the growing German nationalism among the Germans of Brno. She remembers the visit of Adolf Hitler on 17 March 1939, who was greeted enthusiastically by crowds of Brno Germans. During the Protectorate, she worked at the Zbrojovka (arms factory). At the end of the German occupation she experienced the bombing of Brno. Shortly after the war she married and moved with her husband to Bílovec in northern Moravia. She worked as a clerk at Koh-i-noor company. She and her husband raised three daughters. In 2022 she was living in Bílovec.