The smuggler left her alone in the middle of the forest

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On March 21, 1949, Irena Šimonová attempted to cross the border and get into West Germany. She had a legitimate fear of being arrested and thus wanted to follow in the footsteps of her friend František Smrček, who by then had already been in exile. Operating from Germany, Smrček arranged a smuggler for her to make sure the nineteen-year-old inexperienced girl safely passed through the forests full of border guards and treacherous swamps. The contracted smuggler indeed contacted Irena and they set out on the journey together. However, the smuggler suddenly stopped in the midst of the forests beyond Nýrsko and refused to go any farther. Irena Šimonová recalls: "He told me that I should continue on my own. I knew that he was supposed to safely pass me on to someone. But I was afraid to argue with him - I mean I was alone there with him in the forest. We were somewhere in the middle of the woods, I had absolutely no idea where I was. He tried to explain the way to me but I knew that I would never be able to find it on my own. So at least I asked him to show me the direction. He just pointed his arm somewhere like this. And then he was gone. And suddenly I heard voices and barking dogs." The smuggler probably heard the sounds before Irena did and decided to save his own skin. "So I ran into the bushes and I felt I was sinking into the earth. I had heard that there were places in Šumava where you could drown in the swamp. I stayed hidden and prayed that the dogs won't find me. Luckily, they didn't. Probably the wind was blowing from the other side. I couldn't do anything else but get out of the bog and try to get somewhere," she recalled. At dawn, Irena - dirty and with her clothes torn - got back to Nýrsko. She groomed herself as much as she could and got on a train back to Prague. On the train, she was arrested by the police and subsequently ended up in prison for 11 years.

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Irena Šimonová

Irena Šimonová, née Vlachová, was born in Ivanov on December 9, 1929. Both of her parents came from wealthy families, their marriage was not happy, and they got divorced in 1945. Irena grew up in Vyškov, where she experienced WWII and the subsequent liberation of the city by the Red Army. Due to the unsatisfactory situation in the family after the divorce of her parents, Irena moved to Prague where she - as an underage - was placed under the supervision of her father's friend, a retired lawyer, Dr. Pekuláš. At that time, she studied at the People's University. During her studies, she met František Smrček, with whom she maintained a very strong, albeit on her part only a friendly relationship. After Smrček emigrated to West Germany in 1948, Irena got involved in illegal activities with Smrček's help, trying to help people who were threatened with persecution by the communist regime. In March 1949, she tried to cross the border in the region of Šumava, (Bohemian Forest). However, the smuggler abandoned Irena in the woods and the escape failed. On her return journey by train to Prague on March 21, 1949, she was arrested. After harsh interrogations in St. Bartholomew Street in Prague, a secret trial with "Irena Vlachová and companions" took place on Christmas 1949, in which she was sentenced to 25 years in prison. She was placed in a prison in Prague’s Pankrác and in 1951 she was sent to work in a brick factory in Červené Pečky. From there, along with other inmates, she unsuccessfully tried to escape to West Germany. She got caught by the police and was sentenced to another three years on top of her original sentence. She was placed in the Pardubice prison, where her fellow inmates counted "celebrities" like Růžena Vacková, Dagmar Šimková, Jiřina Štěpničková, Julie Hrušková, and others. Irena Šimonová was released during an amnesty in 1960. She went to her mother in Carlsbad and lived there until 1968. She married and started a family. During the Prague Spring, she got involved in the establishment of the KAN in Carlsbad. In August 1968, she emigrated with her husband to the Netherlands. Here she founded a successful company doing business in the clothing and fashion industry. Today she alternately lives in Prague and in the Netherlands.

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Nýrsko

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The town of Nýrsko was founded on an ancient trade route. The first reference to Nýrsko dates back to the year 1327 and relates to the collection of toll. At the end of the 19th century, Nýrsko developed into a local industrial center, with blueprint production and a factory producing glasses, (W. Eckstein and comp. - later Okula Nýrsko). This company has maintained its operations until the present day. In the years of communism, especially at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, Nýrsko became the starting point for smugglers and refugees on their way across the border into West Germany.

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The smuggler left her alone in the middle of the forest

Irena Šimonová