Věra Žahourková, née Vacková

Věra Vacková was born on March 18, 1925 in Tábor to father Jaroslav and mother Anna. At the time of the Nazi occupation in March 1939, Věra was a high school student. Her father got involved in the regional anti-Nazi resistance movement, linked up to the Defense of the Nation organization. Following a wave of arrests in 1942, the remains of all the underground groups in the Tábor region and surrounding areas merged. Jaroslav Vacek became one of the leaders of the resistance group “Vacek-Červinka”, whose agenda featured primarily preparations for an armed revolt, sabotages of all kinds, intelligence-gathering, distribution of underground leaflets, etc. Moreover, the Vacek family helped to hide František Pospíšil (1919–1944), head of the Bivouc paratroop group. Věra also came into contact with Pospíšil, accompanying him on two occasions to the Borotín forests, where South Bohemian resistance fighters used to meet in hidden bunkers. Another wave of arrests in the region came early in 1943. Many members of the underground group, including its leading officials, were detected during the crackdown. The Gestapo in Tábor arrested Jaroslav Vacek at the beginning of February. Not long afterward, on February 8, 1943, the Germans detained the rest of his family, except for the youngest daughter Drahuše. Harsh interrogations followed, with the Gestapo browbeating Věra Vacková into disclosing information about her father and the paratroopers, but she did not give anything away. Three months later, on May 7, 1943, mother Anna, brother Jaroslav, and Věra were sent to the prison in the Small Fortress in Terezín. Father Jaroslav was taken to Terezín sometime later, after questioning in the Pankrác Prison. Finally, he was moved to Dresden to stand trial on October 14, 1943. Sentenced to capital punishment, Jaroslav Vacek was executed on August 23, 1944. Věra’s brother Jaroslav did not live to see the end of the war either. He was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp in August 1943, and in January 1944, he was moved to the Neuengamme concentration camp. He perished on May 3, 1945, during an RAF air raid on German evacuation ships carrying away inmates. Věra Vacková and her mother Anna were assigned to live in the same cell in the Workshop Courtyard in the Small Fortress. Initially, Věra worked in the field, but when inmates from the Workshop Courtyard asked her if she could act as a messenger between them and the so-called special prisoners, notably associate professor Vladimír Krajina (1905–1993), she volunteered to work in the cleaning commando. Its members had to clean the projection room of the SS cinema whose windows faced the courtyard where those special prisoners were allowed to move. In this way, she could arrange exchanges of secret messages. Thanks to her excellent knowledge of German she maintained good relations with the female guards. She cleaned their houses and prison guard Elisabeth Schmidt even let her look after her own son. The female prisoners would spend their free time, especially evenings, following various cultural and artistic pursuits. For her part, Věra Vacková composed poems and songs, some of which were sung in the cell. That happened on the occasion of a clandestine St. Nicholas party, where minor hand-made souvenir objects were exchanged. All the preserved artifacts reminding of the stay of Věra Vacková in the Small Fortress are now part of the Terezín Memorial collection. On January 20, 1944, Věra and her mother were transferred to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Their stay in the camp turned out to be a living hell. Luckily for the two of them, they were transferred to the branch camp Neubrandenburg to work in the Waldbau factory. With the approaching war front, evacuation of the women prisoners began on April 27, 1945 – with a death march. Věra, her mother, and a few other inmates were able to flee from the death march. After their liberation, they left for what proved to be an arduous journey home. Věra and her mother arrived in Tábor on May 22, 1945.