My parents’ inn became the “German House” during the occupation
Download image
Jiří Hylmar was born in Nová Paka on 28 February 1934 and had five siblings. His parents ran an inn, a butcher shop and a small farm. During the occupation, their inn became a “German House” with Nazi soldiers living in the farmhouse. The Gestapo arrested the father’s cousin for his resistance activities and he died as a result of his imprisonment. Jiří Hylmar witnessed the deportation of the large local Jewish community in Nová Paka, the arrival of refugees from Silesia and Hungary, and the marches of Russian POW. Some Russian prisoners escaped and hid in the forests around. Jiří Hylmar and his relatives brought leftover food from the inn to the escapees. After the war, he began to study at a grammar school, transferring to the Business Academy in Hořice, and finished school in Jičín after an incident with a teacher. He worked as a clerk with the state-owned company Regula. His father was arrested for sedition targeting the new regime in 1948 and all the family property was nationalised. The family was still allowed to stay in their home thanks to help from by their mother’s brother, a founding member of the Communist Party and a Ministry of the Interior employee. At age eleven, Hylmar joined the Junák boy scouts. When the communists banned scouting, he and his friends founded an illegal ten-member Junák group. They met in a cabin called Yucatan and armed themselves. Some of the group tried to emigrate in 1952, using a small airplane. They were arrested on a tip-off. The other scouts who did nothing except secret meetings were arrested much later by the State Security. They came for Jiří Hylmar in the morning on 2 June 1954. The investigation took place in Nová Paka and Pardubice. The rest of the group was convicted by the Higher Military Court in Prague. On January 10, 1955, its members received sentences ranging from three to eighteen years for treason and espionage. Hylmar got three years because he was a minor at the time of the group’s activity. He ended up in the Jáchymov area, mining uranium ore in the Nikolaj and Rovnost camps. After release in 1957, Jiří Hylmar worked as a labourer and completed a mechanical engineering school later on. He worked as a machine locksmith until retirement. In 1968, he revived Junák activities in Nová Paka. After November 1989, he again contributed to reviving Junák activities in his hometown.
