Ratiboř

In the morning at 10.00 am we gathered in front of the municipal office to unveil a panel that informs about the partisan bunker in Borčí. Then the march of the citizens of Ratibor, accompanied by music and our interest organizations, whether firefighters, hunters or footballers, went to the memorials of the fallen citizens in the war.

The first stop was at the memorial in the school, where the names of citizens from Ratibor who died in World War I are listed. Next we went to the cemetery where the partisans Ctibor Čermák and Antonín Surý lie. Even though Ctibor Čermák is lying in the cemetery, we also went to the place where he fell while fleeing from the German soldiers. It was on Zbranek Hill near the waterworks. There, among the birch trees, Ctibor also has his place of remembrance. A bouquet was also laid at the memorial by the expedition from Hlubokie Mašůvek, because Ctibor came from this village near Znojmo. The last stop was at the lower end at the sawmill , where the partisans Viktor Grekovskiy and Pavel Pimenov, who were killed in the shootout in Mynarik's sawmill, are buried.

In the afternoon we all met in Borčí, where the Vackovs maintain the bunker that Ludvík Hynek built together with the citizens of Ratibora to help the partisan resistance. Singers from the local Evangelical church sang for us. Mrs. Milada Valová, the headmistress, recited a poem by the teacher Frantiska Malucka, which many of the older citizens remember. Both at the opening and at the end, the Good News Bells played for us, which were very impressive, and I think the whole ceremony was a very moving and dignified tribute to all the fallen citizens.

As I mentioned earlier, the councillors of the village of Hluboké Mašůvka were also invited to the commemoration. Several years ago, a partnership was established with this village, which was maintained by the teachers from the primary school. The children went on exchange visits, orientation runs were organised for them, etc. The mayor of Hluboke Mašůvky was very supportive of our interest in continuing this friendship. On behalf of the municipality and hopefully also on behalf of the school, I can say that in the future we will hopefully be able to carry out a few exchange visits and thus revive the forgotten ones. So far, I know of Ratiborians who are still corresponding with their peers from Mašůvek who used to visit us. Maybe there is still pottery in the household that was fired in South Moravia. We shall see, everything is on the right track for now...

And because we think that World War II deserves to be remembered, our village chronicler and librarian, Ester Miniarikova, and I thought we would go around to a few of the wartime survivors, even though they were still children at the time, and collect their memories as they saw it through their own eyes. We recorded the memories and took the liberty of publishing them in an appendix which is included in this newsletter.

At the same time, we appeal to our citizens whom we have inadvertently failed to reach and who would also like to give us their testimony of times past to contact us. We would be happy to write something new about the past of our village, life in it and especially about the people who lived in Ratibor and its surroundings.

Michaela Jakubíková