Lubomír Šik

* 1928

  • “The fact is that ours have devised some way of losing sight of the Litovel people. He never walked on the street and no one was allowed to come to us. There was a hiding place at home under the shop window, where there was a space that looked like a brick wall. When a uniformed person showed up in the shop, he hid immediately. And this affected us children immediately, because we were not allowed to bring any friends home. ”

  • “The uncle I was talking about was a diplomat in Athens and Smyrna, so he came and gave us advice not to make any scenes at home, not to cry - not to warn ourselves that it was dangerous. That they could just send us away for that. So we followed it accordingly. Rather, we disappeared from the house. The check was practically without us. Then suddenly the shop was closed, mother was taken away, leaving us alone. Even that seems strange to me today, but I was not interested in what happened to the children they knew nothing about. We were left without resources. I was 16 years old, sister 14, so we were basically children and suddenly we had to take care of ourselves.”

  • “Our people thought about emigrating. One Litovel traveler, Mr. Nerušil, returned from South America and offered to be a broker and head of the expedition to Argentina. At that time, it offered some land to immigrants free of charge, provided they commit themselves to cultivating it for a certain period of time, etc. But it was definitely not an easy decision. They did not speak any Spanish, had two small children at home and primarily were not farmers. To do something like this was a difficult decision, and it took a long time until the protectorate came and of course all was lost.”

  • “We found out about what was happening on Narodni Avenue when students from Prague were arriving, but also from Palacký University, they came to us and informed us.” - “And the Civic Forum was already established?” – “That was in the first week before the [general] strike. We who gathered to welcome them made first contacts with them. For example, they brought a video shot from Národní třída. We projected this in the first week before the meeting in the shop window. So there was such information here.”

  • “There was a long-wave transmitter in Litovel, which was originally set up, I do not want to say just for the interference of foreign radio, which he did, but it was meant for the dissemination of meteorological data. And when it came to the entry of Soviet troops, the state Czechoslovak Radio broadcasted secretly, you certainly know that. And the technicians came up with the idea of taking over the state broadcasting and breadcasting it over long waves, bringing it all over Europe, and even overseas, because it was a powerful transmitter that really had those options. This was the main content of the radio broadcasting of Ječmínek. However, Litovel protests have added that so many people join in. The editorial staff was Pavel Dostál, a well-known official in Olomouc, and others who sent their contributions, and these things were then broadcasted via Radio Ječmínek.”

  • Full recordings
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    Olomouc, 17.06.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 01:43:31
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
  • 2

    Litovel, 18.07.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 05:13:20
    media recorded in project Stories of the region - Central Moravia
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They closed the shop, took the mother away and left us alone

Lubomír in 1941
Lubomír in 1941
photo: archiv pamětníka

Lubomír Šik was born in Litovel on February 2, 1928 into a family with Christian-Jewish roots. Father Karel Schick and mother Anna, née Staňková, ran a sewing workshop and a textile and seamstress shop in Litovel. Although both of them left the faith and, following the example of President Masaryk, became members of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, they were considered a mixed marriage at the time of the Protectorate. They were formally divorced and his father was hiding until his death in 1941. Lubomír attended elementary school in Litovel and devoted himself to playing the violin. He was admitted to the grammar school, but in 1942 he had to leave because of his mixed-race origin. He was trained as a locksmith. His mother continued to lead the workshop and shop, but was arrested in January 1944. She was warned by the police about the sale of textiles without tickets. Lubomir and two years younger sister Jitřenka remained alone until June 1945. His mother spent her time in Jauer bei Liegnitz in present-day Poland and survived the death march. After the war Lubomír entered the secondary technical school in Šumperk. Here he led a scout unit, founded a school voice band and became an editor of the scout magazine Pětka and school magazine Průmyslovák. After graduation, he was placed in a new turntable production plant in Litovel, where he spent his entire life working for a break - first in the production management department and then in the computer centre. In addition to his work, he devoted himself to organizing cultural evenings with slide shows, led a corporate photo club, played and directed plays for the Litovel amateur theatre association and also participated in the activities of the youth tourist section, which under his leadership became the official Junák section. At the time of normalization, due to his attitudes and activities in Junák was transferred to the department introducing computer technology and remained there until retirement. During the Velvet Revolution, he became involved in public affairs. He became a founding member of the Civic Forum and a town councillor and chronicler. He wrote his extensive memoirs and is the author of a number of publications on the history of the city and gramophone production.