Jiřina Paroubková

* 1917  †︎ 2012

  • "I promised to Jirka Jána, who was the director of the museum, that when I retired, I would help him with cataloging the paintings in Jindřich museum. They had no inventory records at all, and anyone could have stolen anything there. I was taking the inventory for him, when the school inspector happened to come there and see me. He forbade it and ordered that I was not even to work there. But then the inspectors changed and the new inspector decided that I could not have any bad Scouting influence on children if I was working in the museum. And thus I was allowed to continue there."

  • "Well, Scouting became banned, and it was over. I didn’t make any trouble. You need to realize that I was working in that school at that time. When Scouting became allowed, we started again, when it was not allowed, I didn’t want the children to go to some illegally organized meetings. They were just meeting as usual. My reason for this was that I believed we had no right to decide for these children and we could not have them do something illegal. Their parents are responsible for them until they turn eighteen, and the parents themselves have to decide whether their kids would be Pioneers or Scouts."

  • "When we surrendered our property to the police during the war, they did not care how many tents or other things we handed over. They just said: ´Put it over there to the corner.´ They wanted the flags."

  • "They met Smudek up there above Stráž, behind Vavřinec. He was destitute and terribly hungry. They asked him if they could bring him some food. They had a meeting arranged at Kočárek at four. In one place the road leads right by the forest there. They said they would come there at four. Just imagine that among those from the Kamzík troop there was the son of the police commander from Domažlice. Not the German police, but the police from Domažlice. This boy didn’t come. But Karel Kuneš Jr. and the other two boys came. They went to Kočárek and they brought him a briefcase full of food."

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    Domažlice (u paní Paroubkové), 04.03.2012

    (audio)
    duration: 45:00
    media recorded in project A Century of Boy Scouts
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The German police did not care how many tents we surrendered. They wanted our flags.

Sisterhood Day, 1969
Sisterhood Day, 1969
photo: archiv J. Paroubkové

Jiřina Paroubková was born February 21, 1917 in Domažlice. After graduating from the Teachers’ Institute in Pilsen, she returned to Domažlice and began teaching there. While in Pilsen she met Scouts for the first time and immediately began Scouting after her return to Domažlice in 1936. She established a Brownie troop in Domažlice and later she became a unit leader. While in this position, she experienced three bans on Scouting and its three restorations. She is a member of Svojsík’s troop and holder of several Scout decorations. She has been a teacher all her life, and has devoted her time to collecting and regional history. Jiřina Paroubková died on November 14, 2012.