Bullets for help to RAF airmen
Seventy five years ago three men and two women were shot dead for their assistance to both ones.
Those were a navigator of Czechoslovak No 311 Bomber Sqn P/O Jaroslav Zafouk and a fighter pilot S/L Roger Joyce Bushell. The latter masterminded the ´Great Escape´ from the Sagan POW camp in former Silesia in March 1944. S/L Bushell´s escape in September 1941 had been his second.
Zafouk born in Prague in 1917 decided to seek a hiding place for both of them in the capital of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Afraid of the Gestapo stake out of all the dwellings of the families who members had fought against Hitler abroad So Zafouk rejected to hide at the Zafouks´ flat for a long time. Jaroslav´s acquaintance Ms Blazena Zeithammelova put both the airmen up at the flat of the Zeithammels at 23 Zbraslavska road. Under the Protectorate it was called Koenigsaaler Strasse. This street was renamed Strakonicka in 1972.
The Pridals and St Cpt Miroslav Kraus also knew about these two airmen. The latter informed the Gestapo Secret Police about Zafouk´s and Bushell´s hiding place. Both were nabbed by the Gestapo men on May 19, 1942.
Ing. Otto Zeithammel his daughter Blazena his son syn Otakar as well as Mr Vojtech Pridal and Mrs Lida Pridalova were taken to the Petschke Palace Gestapo HQ too. All of them including both the RAF airmen were interrogated there. Eight days later two Czechoslovak members of the Anthropoid Secret Group wounded the Reichsprotector Reinhard Heydrich. No 2 Martial Law was declared and executions were launched in Pilsen on the same day.
No kid gloves from the hands of the Gestapo men while interrogating P/O Zafouk and S/L Bushell. The former survived WWII. The latter was shot dead by the Gestapo officer named Schulz at Saarbruecken on March 29, 1944 following the Great Escape.
On June 30, 1942 all five ones denounced by St Cpt Miroslav Kraus were shot dead tied to a stake at the former Military Firing Range within No 8 Kobylisy Borough of Prague.
Their names ages and time of execution can be seen on the plaques where all the victims executed on that day are listed. The Kobylisy Memorial.
The names of three Zeithammels mentioned above can be seen on a memorial plaque sited on a wall of No 23 Strakonicka St. No 5 Smichov Borough of Prague.
R&R:
Prislusnici ceskoslovenskeho letectva v RAF by Joseph Vana John Sigmund Ing Emil Padior The AVIS MoD Publ. 1999 ie Cz RAF men and women
Pruvodce Protektoratni Prahou - by Jiri Padevet the Academia Publ. 2013 ie Prague under the Protectorate Guidebook
www.vhu.cz/muz-jehoz-zrada-prinasela-smrt/ ie a man whose betrayal was bringing death
www.vets.cz./vpm.mista/obec/1363-praha-5-Strakonicka/ ie a picture of a plaque
https://www.praha8.cz/kobyliska-strelnice-narodni-kulturni-pamatka.html ie The Kobylisy Firing Range National Cultural Memorial
www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gt_esc/
NOTE :
Clicking on : https:www.praha8.cz/kobyliska-strelnice-narodni-kulturni-pamatka.html find a coloured picture of a half kneelig half squatting victim. Just one line above this picture click on the ´informacni brozura v ceskem a anglickem jazyce PDF 1.4 MB´ underlined line ie ´An info brochure in both Czech and English languages´