In Prague, people said goodbye to the Czech scout Eduard Marek for the last time
Updates: 01/29/2022 19:01
Released: 29.01.2022, 19:01
Prague – The last farewell to Eduard Marek, called the Terrible, the oldest Czech scout, took place in the Prague Church of St. Agnes of Bohemia in Záběhlice. He died on January 22 before midnight. Several hundred people said goodbye to him. Condolences were also sent by Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová. Eduard Marek, holder of the Order of the Silver Wolf, lived to be 104 years old.
At the last farewell, the Mass was celebrated by the scout and Bishop František Radkovský, the scout anthem was first sung and the ceremony continued. The scouts kept an honor guard. In his mourning speech, the Chief of Czech Scouts, Ondřej Vokál, recalled the life of his native Žižkovák, who resisted evil wherever he met him.
As a minister in the church of St. Prokop, Marek joined the parish of the local priest, from which a scout unit was formed. In 1936 he joined the war to the first TGM air regiment. After demobilization next to the family real estate agency.
During the war, he was investigated by the Gestapo and sentenced to three months in Pankrác and Jihlava, where he worked on a farm, for helping a Jewish friend. The usual punishment for helping the Jews was a concentration camp. However, Mark’s interpreter at the German court was able to present material assistance as a business, and therefore the sentence was reduced.
After serving his sentence, Marek worked illegally in a scout under the cover of Žižkov’s Workers’ Sports Union for the rest of the war. He also took part in the Prague Uprising, during which there was a link between the police in Karlín and the center of General Kutlvašr, who commanded the uprising.
After the war, he tried to restore the Junák – Czech Scout movement. He also founded the anti-communist cell DEB (Dr. Edvard Beneš) with friends. The vocal said that the aim of the cell’s activities was to provide assistance to the persecuted and their families, as well as to organize border crossings for anti-regime persons and their families.
However, the group also joined the French secret service, and it was this connection that led to their conviction for espionage. “By being locked up, they probably saved our lives, because otherwise the activity would go on,” he remembered to convict Marek.
Jiří Lukšíček, called Rys, who also spoke at the farewell, was, like Marek, imprisoned in the Jáchymov camps, which, in addition to processing uranium ore, also had the purpose of breaking down ideologically problematic prisoners. Mariánská, where Marek punished, was particularly emphatic in this regard.
Lukšíček stated that they had not broken the Boas. According to him, Marek kept his scout for the rest of his life, and in 1968 and 1989 he kept it active until the renewal of Junák’s competition. According to Lukšíček, he never spoke badly against people who deserved it, and he always did good. That is why Lukšíček was sorry that Marek recognized the President of Slovakia today for his life merits, according to Czech constitutional officials.
Mark, who threatens to arm the fighters during the war and organize their removal to help Czech Radio, this institution today recalls in radio memoirs in the Vltava Fates. The listener can learn that Marek was very active even after he lived to be a hundred years old. At the age of 102, for example, he was still parachuting.