Věra Doubková

* 1929

  • “After 1970 I was repeatedly summoned to the StB, where they wanted me to tell them names and addresses of all Scout officials or even of the troops’ members. I replied that I was not able to tell them, because I knew them all only by their nicknames. I also said that we had submitted the documents with names and addresses when the Scout organization was disbanded. Their reaction was: ´But we want to hear it from you.´ I told them: ´Unfortunately you will not.´”

  • “In 1950 we had come back from the last Scout camp before the communists imposed a ban on the Scout movement. We went to see our clubhouse, which we had on the Libeň Island. When we came there, we found out that locks on the door were broken and the door was sealed with a note that it had been confiscated by the Czechoslovak Youth Union. But we knew that it was possible to get inside – we knew how to climb in, and we got there and took our things – one old army blanket and one stool, worth about ten crowns. We walked home with it over the Libeň bridge, and we were met by a young man who said: ´Where did you get the things?´ – ´From the Scout clubhouse!´– ´Do you realize that you committed burglary?´ We said that it was no burglary, since it was our own clubhouse. In less than a month, we were summoned to the court and charged with burglary and theft.”

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    Karlovy Vary, 20.11.2011

    (audio)
    duration: 03:39
    media recorded in project A Century of Boy Scouts
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I replied that I was not able to tell them, because I knew them all only by their nicknames

Věra Doubková
Věra Doubková
photo: Pořízena autorem nahrávky při rozhovoru.

Věra Doubková, or sister Tečka, under her Scout nickname, was born on May 21, 1929. In 1936 she joined the Girl Scouts’ 8th troop. Influenced by books of Jaroslav Foglar, during the war she formed a club of the Mladý hlasatel (Young Herald) magazine called Modrá Kotva (Blue Anchor). She returned to the Scouts after the war. The Scout organization then became banned in Czechoslovakia, and after another 20 years she became the leader of the Girl Scouts’ 5th troop in Karlovy Vary. She was, however, unable to continue working with children because she was forced to go to work as a lorry driver under the campaign “77,000 for the production industry,”. As a driver, she worked 10 to 12 hours a day, including weekends. After 1989 she became active as a Scout official again and in 1991 she was decorated with the Bronze Syrinx.