Operation Silver A and the Čenda resistance group

A strip of forest separated the municipality of Včelákov from the community of Ležáky until 1942. On 24 June 1942 the houses in the valley were burned down and their inhabitants who had assisted the paratroopers sent from England were subsequently executed. A majority of the citizens of Ležáky and the surrounding communities disapproved of the Nazi occupation and many of them were involved in a resistance organization founded by Ležáky’s transport operator Čeněk Bureš and Jaroslav Kotáb. They collected weapons, helped the families of those who were arrested, and distributed illegal printed materials. Stonemason Josef Šťulík and miller Jindřich Švanda, Ležáky citizens who lived in the mill on the Ležák pond joined the group too. Early in 1942 the members of the Čenda resistance group started to aid the Silver A paratroop sent from London. The team of three included Capt. Alfréd Bartoš, W/O Josef Valčík and radio operator Jiří Potůček and operated in the Pardubice area. Jiří Potůček dispatched messages to London using the Libuše radio. The resistance members would hide Potůček’s radio station in the double ceiling of the Hluboká stone quarry engine room. For concern of discovery, they often changed the hiding place; according to the local parson, the radio was even briefly stationed at the Včelákov church’s tower. Massive arrests in the region started after 16 June 1942 when the Gestapo received information from the traitor Karel Čurda. The quarry owner František Vašek was arrested on 20 June 1942. The uncle of Jarmila Doležalová (née Šťulíková), miller Jindřich Švanda was arrested by the Nazi police on Sunday 21 June in the afternoon. His wife was caught the following night. More arrests followed. Jarmila Doležalová’s father Josef Šťulík was hiding and he only turned himself in upon a Gestapo call. Marie Šťulíková and her parents, Františka and František Pelikáns, and her brother Václav who lived in Včelákov were arrested on 22 June 1942. Václav Pelikán was lucky; he was released on 22 June in the evening. One Mr. Novotný reportedly helped him, stating that Václav was just fourteen years old. On 24 June 1942 the Nazis surrounded Ležáky and summoned the people who were the permanent residents. An escort picked up five children from schools in Včelákov and Skuteč. Later in the afternoon, the Nazis set the houses on fire, one by one. All citizens of Ležáky arrested on that day were taken to the Zámeček in Pardubice and executed.

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