We kept the weapons in our smokehouse and in the rabbit-hutch
Eduard Novák was born July 19, 1922 in Želetava. He was the only child of a butcher by trade and former legionnaire from Russia. His father met Eduard’s mother while he was training to become a butcher. During the First World War, the father worked as a postman and the mother was a housewife. Eduard Novák studied at the trade academy in Znojmo, but after the occupation of the borderlands he had to relocate and start attending school in Moravské Budějovice. Both father and son joined the resistance movement right after the outbreak of WWII. His father was active as a liaison and messenger between the higher command and the regional resistance groups. At first, Eduard was helping with removing supplies from the Czechoslovak army depots which were taken over by the Germans. Later he assisted during paradropping of weapons. Some of the weapons were even hidden in the Novák family’s rabbit- hutch or in the smokehouse but fortunately there were not found by the Gestapo during house searches. Since 1944 he was helping paratroopers, as thanks to his job in a dairy he was able to provide them with milk, butter and eggs. At the very end of the war he and his comrades took over a distillery. After the war he worked for the communications administration in Jihlava, and after the cancellation of his job position he began working in Brno and then in Třebíč, where he spent the longest time. He retired earlier owing to his recognized statute as a person who had helped the paratroopers. He still lives in his native house in Želetava and in 2007 he received the official statute of a war veteran.
