A FUNERAL UNDER HITLER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 40, 15 April 1942, Page 6

A FUNERAL UNDER HITLER

The Czech cottager, Ivarel Zajicck, had been arrested by the Gestapo and taken to the Buchcmvaldc concentration camp in Germany. A I'cav Aveeks later his Avife received in a broAA'n cardboard box the ashes of her husband, who had been murdered in that Black Guard Hell. The commander of the camp had Avritten, as usual: "The prisoner, Karel Zajicek, hanged himself because he AA'as afraid of the punishment coming to him. «i ; ." l

The avkloav stared at the broAvn ccardboard box. Broken doAvn by hopeless sorroAV, she could only Avhis per reproach full j', "Dear Lord! Dear Lord!" In the afternoon a man in the black uniform of the S.S. called at the Zajicek's home-.

"Mrs Zajicek," he yelled, "we cannot allow 3 r ou to have a public funeral for your husband. You must bury him alone—quite alone. Should anyone in the village learn of the day and the hour of the funeral, or should anyone dare to attend, not only he or she but also you and your son will rue the day on which you dared go against our orders."

On the day before the funeral—• the Gestapo had fixed the da}' —the S.S. officer appeared again.

Oscar looked fixedly at the officer find answered for his mother.

"Yes, my mother understood what you said. She will bury my ffither alone, quite alone. . . ."

"Czechoslovak" describes the funeral as follows: —

On the same evening the Gestapo agents paid surprise visits to some of the houses in the village. But they found nothing suspicious. In one house they saw Oscar with some young men of his age. But, as the Protector of the Realm had expressed the wish that young men should learn German, the secret police could not object. Strange quiet, and scornful looks German, the secret police could not arrest the whole village. On the day of the funeral the village street looked strangely different. It was swept very clean, and not a single human, being was upon it. Not a single voice was to be heard. At the open window stood the villagers, the men bareheaded, notwithstanding the bitter cold, the women, their hands folded, in silent prayer. The door of the Zajicek house opened, and the window bore the brown cardboard box with the ashes of her murdered husband. Slowly, very slowly and in perfect silence, she walked along the' empty village street. ... Such Avas the funeral of the gallant fighter, Karel Zajicek, who was to be buried alone, quite alone, and whose funeral the whole village attended nevertheless.