"Then everything was interrupted. Because when Dad had arranged with his co-workers that someone would take care of us, he would then tell his brother-in-law by letter. He would then help Mum take care of her business. And Mum married one of the guys Dad had designated. They agreed that he should take care of us. We moved to Havlíčkůlv Brod. There wasn't that much money, because there was a currency reform in the meantime. Then I started going back to my family much later. But we were in contact with my aunts. I used to go to them." - "Those were Daddy's sisters?" - "Yes, sisters." - "Daddy was an electrician?" - "He had a secondray technical school."
"In the plant, that's where I was, in the trade. It was a trade." - "What was it then?" - "Elektro - Velo. I'll give you a picture. Elektro - Radio - Velo, that's what it was called. My dad did installations in the surrounding villages, they repaired radios, probably sold them. I don't remember. And they used to charge car batteries there." - "So the business was quite prosperous?" - "I guess so. There are still trade books, and then when Dad was arrested, there were quite a few people left owing us money."
"I know my dad used to bring support to the ones who got arrested, to their women and children. He was an electrician. He probably worked with a radio, too. But I don't know exactly, I was five years old, my brother was a year old when we last saw him." - "You have some vague memory?" - "Yes, I do. I remember: my parents were at the dentist's and we were at the neighbours'. All of a sudden Mum came to get us to go say goodbye to Dad. I just remember that there were four shiny high boots against the white wall in the living room. Then, later, Mum explained to me that they were the boots of the SS and that I hugged them so that they wouldn't take my father away from me."
Blanka Hanzliková, née Fialová, was born on 1 October 1937. Her parents, Marie and Gustav Fiala, lived in Přeštice near Pilsen. Her father was a trained electrician and owned the company Elektro - Radio - Velo, her mother was a housewife. The family was doing well, four years after Blanka was born their son Gustav. They were all enthusiastic Sokol members, Blanka went to the local Sokol from the age of two, her father was the chief and mayor of the Šumava regional organization. At the beginning of the Protectorate, after the establishment of the resistance group of Sokol JINDRA, Gustav Fiala joined the anti-Nazi resistance. In 1942, the group was betrayed and Gustav Fiala was arrested. As one of the main figures, he was taken to Germany and executed on 10 December 1943. Blanka was five years old. Her father had wanted her mother to remarry one of the resistance members, which happened in 1947. Blanka, technically gifted after her father, graduated from the Czech Technical University, majoring in electrical - radio engineering. After graduation, she married, lived in Ostrava and worked at the Automation and Mechanisation Plant of Mines. After moving to Prague, she taught for years at the Secondary Technical School of Telecommunications. Even as a pensioner, she was still active at the time of the filming (2025): she went to kindergarten to read to children and worked as a curator in an art gallery. She also took care of her father’s legacy - she tried to have materials reminding of the active anti-fascist stance of Gustav Fiala and the local Sokol members collected and exhibited in the museum in Přeštice.
