"Suddenly, a neighbor, who was a fireman, ran and shouted: 'the Church is on fire'! The tower was burning. We were soaking wet. We had no idea what was going on here. Hordes of troops swept over this territory."
"He was a great guy, a very friendly man. A specialist teacher and a scout. He was nicknamed Pharaoh. He founded a scout troop in Dolní Bludovice. Until then, I did not know anything about scouting. Thanks to him, I was able to get to know scouting. There was nothing like our scout troop far and wide. I walked an hour and a half each day to school in Bludovice. There in the morning and back in the afternoon."
"I was born in Šenov in Silesia in 1922. I attended elementary school in 1933 in the same place I attended secondary school in Dolní Bludovice in Cieszyn, where I commuted daily from my home in Šenov. This school was the workplace of a specialist teacher, Mr. Pravoslav Pop, who in 1934 founded a scout troop in the school. After I acquainted myself a bit closer with the activities of this troop, I became a member in 1935."
Josef Rajdus - Joža was born on 29 September, 1922, in Šenov, Silesia. In 1935, he joined a Boy Scout troop in Dolní Bludovice under the guidance of his teacher Pravoslav Pop (nicknamed “Pharaoh”). In March 1939, he co-founded a Scout troop in Šenov, as the Scout section in Dolní Bludovice found itself in Polish occupation. On 4 November, 1940, the Gestapo confiscated the property of the troop. During the freeing of Šenov, he participated in fighting the fire that destroyed the church tower. After the war, Scouting in Šenov was restored and Josef Rajdus became the first leader of the 1st troop. In the years 1946-1950, he was the head of the scout center in Šenov. In 1968, he became active in the restoration of scouting and led the center, and again in 1990. After the revolution, he held various posts at the ORJ in Frýdek. He compiled and issued a publication on Scouting in Šenov. In 1995, he participated in an expedition to the Jamboree in Dronten. He worked in the Vitkovice Ironworks. He is married and has a son. He was admitted to the honorary Svojsík troop and received several awards for his life-long work for scouting.
