Dana Zháňalová

* 1937

People helping Jews during WWII, Relative of a political prisoner
21. 8. 1968 - Invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops, 25. 2. 1948 - Communist coup d‘état in ČSR, 15. 3. 1939 - The Nazi occupation of ČSR, 1944 - 1945 - The liberation of Czechoslovakia
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    Almost been sent to Germany for re-education

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    duration: 01:42
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    “After they sentenced him to death, they wanted to put me in a German family for re-education. I wouldn´t say the German, as they were outright Nazis. When they came to us, or when my second father, Eduard, was summoned by the authorities, he told them that he would raise me in a way that I would benefit Germany. They would tell him: 'But you have to speak German with her, not Czech.' Of course, they would speak Czech with me, but every day, they would speak some German also, so I could understand. Every month, this social worker would came to us and speak German with me. I was a child, but still I was able to react somehow. I don´t know whether it was in Czech or German, but they would let me stay at home. In early 1945, when it was evident that the war had been lost, the social worked would stop visiting us, so I managed to get out of it.”

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    O návštěvě věznice v Berlíně po roce 1989

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    duration: 01:16
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    “After the revolution, me and Bob, my husband, went to Germany where we would locate that Plötzensee prison in Berlin. They showed us even the executioner´s axe, the guillotine, which for me was a horrible experience. And being Germans, as accurate as ever, they would even find records about what happened before the execution. The documents stated that a Catholic priest visited him and prayed with him, even the time when it happened was noted. Priest visit – 4:30 AM. But I guess that he wasn´t with him during the execution.”

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    Letter written by her father before the execution

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    duration: 01:54
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    “Here stands written: Karel Svák, Berlin Plötzensee, September 18th 1942. So I will read this letter: 'My dear little Dana, I am bidding you my last farewell. As you will be the last one who would read these lines. My dear child, you are the one I am asking to forgive me in the first place, as to you I owe my greatest debt. I didn´t give you anything while being alive and I am leaving you with nothing. Except my warmest plea to your sisters and brothers to leave you not and to channel upon you all the love they were giving me. I had been praying all the time, so our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary wouldn´t leave you, so they would take you into their divine heart and protect you from all evil. Always be good, study hard and repay love with love. Today, in few more hours, I will join your dear mother. I believe that you would be always good, a true Czech and a Christian.'”

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    Zlín, 16.03.2019

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    duration: 01:34:01
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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I can´t trust the Germans, although I know they are not all the same

Dana Zháňalová in 2019
Dana Zháňalová in 2019
photo: Post Bellum
photo: Post Bellum
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Dana Zháňalová was born on March 11th 1937 in Brno. Her father, Karel Svák, had a successful real estate agency. In 1939, her mother had passed away. After that, her father joined the anti-Nazi resistance. He had been helping people in danger to leave the Protectorate. He had been betrayed, arrested, sentenced for treason in Nuremberg in March 1942 and executed by guillotine in Berlin in September 1942. Orphaned Dana had been adopted by her older sister and her husband who took her in and raised her. At the end of the Second World War, the family moved from Brno to Zlín. The witness lived through the bombing of both cities. She found out how her father died as an eighteen-years-old. In Zlín, know as Gottwaldow at that time, she passed the secondary school leaving exams and went on to study German and English in Brno. However, she dropped out from the university. She had been working as a translator and an interpreter from German at Ground Constructions (Pozemní stavby) and Barumprojekt Gottwaldov national enterprises. She gave birth to a son. Her second husband, Bohumír Zháňal, was a Czechoslovak national team runner. After 1989, she received compensation as a daughter of an executed resistance fighter.

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