Pavel Parkán

* 1932

  • “My mom had kept quiet on the illegal activities of my dad but I learned about it from my grand pa. I remember that different people would stay overnight at our flat and that my dad would at times simply disappear for periods of time, night or a day. In short, they acted as liaisons, helping people who needed to disappear from the country, providing for shelters and places these people could stay overnight. It was mostly done via the railway. They were instructed to proceed from one train station to another, where they were met by another liaison, who helped them make it to the next station. Most of them would flee via Poland.”

  • “Yes, we would meet personally and that commissioner even allowed my mom to give him some food. He turned like this to the window. I didn’t talk to him as I was frightened. I had this paper plane they made back then. That German asked me what I had that plane for. I had been instructed by my mom what to tell them so I said: ‘that’s for taking back wounded German soldiers from the battle and take them to a hospital to save them’. He’d roll his eyes at me and I retreated to my mom’s skirt where I hid. I don’t remember much more of that last encounter with my dad. I only know that my mom fed him as he had a broken collarbone. My mom asked him what happened to him and he told her that he had fallen down a set of stairs. I almost wouldn’t recognize him – he was in a bad shape, his hair and beard overgrown and grey. He was missing his glasses, they had probably taken them away from him. He was wearing blue working trousers. He was in a terrible state, it was painful for us to look at him.”

  • “Then, in 1944, there was a succession of massive air raids and my mom would tell me: ‘I’ll take you to Humpolec, this ain’t good for you’. She also kept being worried about my dad. One day, Czech gendarmes came to our home and told us that our flat is being confiscated. They told my mom to move out. They confiscated everything in our flat – we had to leave everything there. So my mom went to Humpolec. However, subsequently, they summoned her to the Oberlandrat in Kutná Hora, where they told her that she was required to take part in German activity – this meant working the railway repair shop in Kolín. In this workshop, they’d repair everything that had been shot to pieces. This workshop became a de-facto prison for her since she wasn’t even allowed to leave it. She was working as a slave laborer there until 1945.”

  • “My dad was a great man, very likeable and amicable indeed. He’d stop and have a chat with everybody. For instance, he’d leave the parsonage – being on his way somewhere – and before he could even get on his bike and drive away, people would already stop him asking for advice. So he wouldn’t even make it to the village as he spent the time talking to people, counselling them on their troubles and worries. Everywhere he went, he was a source of great inspiration and wisdom for people. This was true in the village as well as in the city. It was the same thing there. I remember the walks on the streets with him, him chatting with numerous people, them asking for his opinion and advice. We’d go for walks to Kmochův ostrov island or Starý Kolínu, just on the outskirts of the city. I got to know him much more than I got to know my mother as I’d spend so much time with him, mostly taking long walks with him. He’d always tell me: ‘Be a good student and an ardent reader of books’!”

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    Liberec, 02.04.2014

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    duration: 02:17:05
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Be strong and valiant, pray and have faith in God

P. Parkán young
P. Parkán young
photo: Archiv pamětníka

  Pavel Parkán was born on June 12, 1932, in Jihlava as the only child of Jan and Marie Parkánovi. His father, Jan Parkán, came into this world on December 8, 1905, in Dvorce u Jihlavy. Since 1926, he had been a catechist in the Czechoslovak Hussite Church - CČS(H). In June 1928, he was ordained a priest and in September 1928, he was installed as a pastor of the CČS(H) in Humpolec. In January 1933, he was transferred to the tough job of serving as assistant cleric and catechist in Kolín. Here he stayed with his family at the new parsonage of the Jan Hus church. It was also here where he was arrested by the police of the German Reich on March 25, 1943, for the illegal collaboration with the local teacher Václav Kvarda, the dissemination of foreign broadcast news and anti-German preaching and public speeches. He spent his custody period together with other friends from Kolín in Kutná Hora. After his imprisonment which lasted for many months, he was sentenced to death in Litoměřice on November 9, 1944. Until his execution, he was held in several prisons. Shortly before the liberation of Leipzig, Jan Parkán and dozens of his fellow inmates were executed on April 16, 1945. The message with the pardoning of Jan Parkán failed to reach the addressee in time. The president of the republic decorated Jan Parkán in memoriam with the Czechoslovak War Cross 1939. On October 12, 1947, a memorial plaque on a church in Humpolec was unveiled and likewise, a memorial plaque commemorating him was installed in the Jan Hus church in Kolín on May 2, 1965.