Jiří Sommer

* 1931

  • “I told them: ‘Guys, I’ll go and have a look at what’s going on there’. So I walked up and saw a couple of armed MPs standing there. I had a rifle and I held the gun barrel and dragged it on the floor. There were two of us – me and a friend. We walked slowly up to them, they noticed us but apparently they didn’t feel threatened by us. We stood there for a while and suddenly there was an airplane landing on the runway. It was a military Dakota but this one was very nicely decorated. The plane rolled along the runway and stopped short in front of us. All the MPs went to the airplane to open the door. Two officers stepped out of the plane. The first one was wearing a military cap. We had seen that man before because his picture was in all the newspapers long before the end of the war. It was General Eisenhower. The Americans called him Ike. He was the Commander in Chief of the Allied armies in the West. I thought this couldn’t be true – was it really him? But it had to be him – I clearly recognized him. The second man was apparently some aide of his, a liaison officer or something of the sort. He was carrying a suitcase with all the documents. They came up to the group of the MPs and talked a bit with them. Then, a huge green car covered with emblems arrived at the airport and they got inside and left. I asked one of the soldiers - General Eisenhower? ’Yes, it’s General Ike’. We knew that he was called this way. All the Americans stayed there so we looked after the planes. But we were watching out for things to happen. It took about two hours for the car to come back. They stepped outside, the car left and they went to the soldiers and chatted with them, just as if they were ordinary people. In the same way as we’re talking right now. But now, it’s me who’s talking most of the time. Back then, it was different, it was a conversation amongst a bunch of people, sort of a circle. Me and my friend stood there quite innocently, nobody had noticed us. It could have lasted twenty minutes. Then, the aide looked at his watch and said something to Eisenhower. He took a look at his watch as well and nodded. And you could tell that they were about to say goodbye and leave. Before they departed to the airplane, Eisenhower went around the circle and shook everybody’s hand. It could have been some 10 - 15 soldiers plus some two or three MPs and he shook the hands of all of them, including us. He shook my hand as well.”

  • “We have to be happy and proud about the fact that today, in the first summer after the Red Era, we are being begged by the Chief of the Pioneers to let them stay in a part of our camp. Believe it or not, I was able to push it through. We offered them a portion of the camping ground that evening. They would have a flag post, a campfire, and a gate. Of course we would remove all Scout emblems. We were to give them everything they needed, and we asked them in return to publish every where that we had lent them our camp. Two days before the end of our camp, they sent me a letter saying that they were sorry, but that they would not be able to secure enough participants for their camp. They only had 11 people including 2 children. That’s really not enough to organize a camp. That was another satisfaction.”

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    Nový Bor, 13.11.2011

    (audio)
    duration: 02:04:46
    media recorded in project A Century of Boy Scouts
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Those who absorb these ideas and truths can never become scoundrels again

Sommer Jiří
Sommer Jiří
photo: dobová-Sekerkovy Loučky

Jiří Sommer was born on December 24, 1931, in Pilsen. His father was a policeman and remained a policeman during WWII under the oversight of the Germans. At the age of 6, Jiří was introduced to the scouting. He became a Cub Scout and obtained his first nickname “Šluky”. On May 6, 1945, after the liberation of Pilsen by U.S. forces, he helped to maintain discipline and order in the city. Although he was only fourteen years old by then, he was put in charge of a group of Italian POWs that he escorted to the hospital. The next day, he even got a gun and together with a bunch of other boys he was guarding the airport. This task in effect changed his life because by coincidence, he met General Eisenhower at the airport, took a picture of him and even shook his hand. After the war, his family moved to Nýřany, a town in the Sudetenland. There, Mr. Sommer took active part in scout activities for the next two years. After he completed elementary school, he left for Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) where he worked as an auxiliary worker. In the period of the Communist regime, he lived in Doksy where he worked as a worker in the nearby uranium mines in Stráž pod Ralskem because he had been fired from all other jobs. After the fall of Communism, he became the leader of the Cub Scouts in Nový Bor. He organized a couple of summer camps and when he grew older, he took care of the local Scout center together with his fellow scouts, brother Viki and brother Šedý vlk (grey wolf). He was the delegate of the “old scouts” at the 5th Scout assembly. As a reaction to the assembly, he wrote a letter and had it published in the root newspaper of the old scouts. He criticized the State of the then leadership. During his years in scouting, his brother, Sommer, got the nickname “Sum”.