Závorka František (1911-1943)

Příbram native František Závorka (born 18 October 1911 in Příbram II/74, now Kpt. Olesinského - died 16 January 1943 in Rovensko pod Troskami), staff captain in memoriam, decorated with Czechoslovak war decorations, hero of the anti-Nazi resistance during the Second World War. World War, who gave his life for the freedom of his homeland, is one of the few almost forgotten personalities from the Příbram region, whose memory is still not commemorated in our town by any memorial plaque, monument or other place of remembrance, only by historical materials stored in the local Mining Museum and Archive or biographical data published in specialized literature.

The significance of his patriotic activities, in which he sacrificed his life, is considerable. After the occupation of our country by Hitler's Germany in 1939, he decided to volunteer as an officer of the former Czechoslovak Army. army, to fight for freedom and democracy of his subjugated homeland in the ranks of the Czechoslovak foreign army in the West. He illegally left the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and after a harrowing journey through the Balkans and the Middle East he reached France, where he joined the forming 1st Czechoslovak Division in 1940.

After the defeat of France, he was evacuated at the last moment with other Czechoslovak soldiers to England, where he became a member of the 1st Czechoslovak Mixed Brigade. Soon he was selected for special training to fight in the rear of the enemy. At the rank of lieutenant he commanded a three-man Czechoslovak parachute group with the code name ANTIMONY, in which he was also his deputy cryptanalyst platoon. Stanislav Srazil and radio operator svob. Lubomír Jasínek. Their landing party had the difficult task of secretly parachuting into the territory of the Protectorate and re-establishing contact with the domestic resistance, hard hit by the Gestapo's liquidation strikes during the Heydrichiad, to hand over technical and material resources to help the resistance movement and to resume their interrupted intelligence activities against the Nazi occupiers.

Indeed, after the ANTIMONY para-group was dropped off in eastern Bohemia on 24 October 1942, they managed in time to contact one of the last living representatives of the illegal Central Leadership of the Home Resistance (ÚVOD), Vladimír Krajina, to deliver to him a personal message from exiled President Edvard Beneš and Minister of National Defence Gen. Sergei Ingra. They also supplied an encryption key, put into operation a radio station with the code name Barbora, provided the Home Resistance with funds for further activities, and subsequently established a radio link with the Foreign Resistance Headquarters in London, where they sent a total of 22 dispatches.

In spite of all the difficulties, intelligence and other activities of the Home Resistance resumed thanks to them. However, these events did not escape the attention of the Gestapo, which eventually got on the paratroopers' trail and on the night of 15 January to 16 January 1943 surrounded the house in Rovensko pod Troskami, where the commander of the paratroopers, npor. František Závorka and radio operator svob. Lubomír Jasínek. In a hopeless situation, they refused to surrender to the odds, and in order not to fall into the hands of the enemy alive, they used vials of poison available from England, and thus ended their lives. The third of the paratroopers, Cpl. Stanislav Srazil, was also tracked down, arrested and executed.

Reported by: PaedDr. Josef Velfl