Saving Jewish girl Milka

“In Volhynia there was a neighbour and her husband was a Jew. He had two daughters and his wife died and he remarried. And his new wife hated one of the daughters. She always went hungry. She crossed the road over to our house. We gave her food and whatever we could. The girl began to like us. And then Germans took her to a camp. Mom said: ´I pity that poor girl. I’ll go there and if I can get her, I will bring her here.´ I told her: ´Fine, go then.´ She went and she really got her out of the camp. There were not Germans, but Ukrainians, and she bribed them and told them that she’d like that particular girl. They told her: ´We’ll get her for you.´ They went and loaded straw on a wagon, put the girl there and covered her with the straw. The Germans asked: ´Where are they going?´ - ´To take straw to the cow house.´ Thus Mom brought her home. Then we brought her with us all the way here to Czechoslovakia.”

• born February 2, 1923 in Libánovka in Volhynia
• 1933 drafted to the 8th uhlan regiment in Cracow
• during the war the family saved the life of a Jewish girl Minďa – Milka (later married as Sobotková)
• they adopted Minďa as their own daughter and re-emigrated with her to Czechoslovakia
• during the takeover of Poland in 1939 Antonín Bohatý was transporting Polish soldiers in Volhynia
• 1944 joined the Czechoslovak army corps
• took part in fighting at Krosno, where he was seriously wounded
• after his recovery in Yaroslavl he continued fighting in Slovakia and Moravia
• after the war briefly serving in Žatec and Hodonín
• upon his return to Volhynia he was assigned to the Soviet army to support the USA against Japan
• after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki released from the army
• 1947 re-emigrated to Czechoslovakia and settled in Úsov, where he was working in an agricultural cooperative till his retirement
• at present living in Šumperk