Germans in the kitchen, guerrillas in the cellar
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Lenka Kulišt’áková (née Malínová) was born on 1 February 1936 in Horní Bečva as the eldest of three children to Jan Malín and Alžběta Malínová. The family lived modestly. Her father made living as a painter. Lenka had to work on the farm owned by their landlords from early childhood. The arrival of the guerrillas and the formation of the largest anti-Nazi group in the Protectorate, the 1st Jan Žižka Czechoslovak Brigade was a major turning point in the region. Many locals joined the resistance by providing the partisans with accommodation, food and shelter. So did the Malín family, and virtually the entire Horní Bečva and other areas of the Beskydy Mountains. When the biggest anti-guerrilla strike, Operation Grouse broke out in November 1944, more than 13,000 soldiers opposed the resistance fighters in the tightly sealed mountain area. The house where the Malíns lived was a shelter for people fleeing the Gestapo at the time. This was not divulged only thanks to an early warning. In addition, Wehrmacht soldiers were staying in the house and Lenka observed them through the keyhole. Her father Jan Malín was arrested and imprisoned for several days in November 1944 because he refused to repaint a German sign on the local town hall. During the liberation, Soviet soldiers were stationed in the house and mother Alžběta had to hide because she was a woman. Lenka Kulišt’áková finished primary school as a debutante - she was admitted to secondary school in Holešov. Due to family and financial reasons, however, she only studied there for one year before joining Tesla Rožnov at age 16 and continuing working there for more than 30 years.
