Věra Benešová

* 1926

  • “I established a club of Foglar’s Fast Arrows, while in our summer cottage. I organized a group of boys and girls of my age, they were a little older, and I practiced Scouting according to Foglar’s principles. Foglar kept me going throughout the whole war, and the Scouting was amazing, it was Scouting in secret. Foglar was my idol, he made an impact on a great number of people, and he has held us throughout the war, he really helped us to live through it.”

  • “When I listen to the radio and there is somebody who interests me and I think, you are my blood type, in the end I find out that they were Scouts, too. (Yes, yes, it is true). This has happened to me countless times… people from this or that party, artists, actors, professors, people who comment on the political situation, every morning at half past eight on programme two. I like to listen to it and I always think… oh, you must be a Scout, and indeed, they are really Scouts.”

  • “The 1950s were a cruel period. (…) our boys were involved in guiding people over the border. There were many of them. We were…I have buried all this, including the names, in my memory, but I know that the boys helped me a lot, because one day they ran into my apartment and warned me: ´Vejda, they already know about it, all the addresses that we had, forget everything, they know it and they are arresting people. Indeed, many boys from Pilsen were sent to prison and they spent a very long time there.”

  • Full recordings
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    Týn nad Vltavou, 01.03.2013

    (audio)
    duration: 50:05
    media recorded in project A Century of Boy Scouts
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

I have buried the names of the Pilsen Scouts, who were taking people across the border, in my memory so that I would not harm anybody

Věra Benešová
Věra Benešová

  Věra “Vejda” Benešová was born as Věra Nová on Mach 22, 1926 in Pilsen into a family of teachers. In 1939 she joined a Scout troop for a short time and she greatly enjoyed the activities, but they soon came to an end due to the Nazi ban on Scouting. After World War II she began with Scouting again, and she became the leader of the 27th Girl Scout troop Peruť in Pilsen. She organized several Scout camps and she served as the leader of the Scout group and district. Junák (Scout) organization became banned after 1948. In the 1950s, Věra was briefly involved in guiding people illegally over the state border. The family later moved to České Budějovice and Věra found a job in a kindergarten. She married and they had three sons. Later she became the principal of the kindergarten in the Tesla company, and she was also involved in preschool education of children, in educating new teachers and in working for the regional teachers’ institute. Due to her Scouting past, she was summoned for interrogation by the StB, but the “only” consequence was the loss of several of her positions. In 1968 she participated in the restoration of Junák in České Budějovice, she led a school of woodcraft and since that year she was also organizing annual reunions on the Day of Sisterhood on February 22. She was also involved in the last restoration of Junák after 1989 and she helped to republish Majka Černá’s manual Leading a Troop. For a short time she was a member of the central board of Junák.