Krumlov after the war

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Růžena Zouharová spent the end of World War II in her native town of Moravský Krumlov. After the liberation of Vienna on April 13, 1945, the German population of Moravský Krumlov began to worry about the further developments that would take place after the war. On April 17, 1945, a general evacuation of the German population was announced. During those days, the Kinsky family and the German mayor Grohschmied left the town. Růžena Zouharová remembers the garden center at the chateau premises: "The Kinsky family had a greenhouse full of yellow roses in their gardens. It was beautiful there. The gardener shot himself and his wife after the war. It was completely unnecessary. He was in that NSDAP organization and always marched, nose up. But otherwise he didn't harm anybody."

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Růžena Zouharová

Růžena Zouharová, née Vyhnálková, was born in late 1928 in the town of Moravský Krumlov as the fourth and last child of the coachman Jan Vyhnálek and the housewife Anna Vyhnálková Anna, née Watzinger. They were a typical example of an ethnically mixed marriage. Both brothers of Jan Vyhnálek – who thought of himself as a Czech – were expelled after the war, (to Austria), as Germans. The same was true for the other side of the family, Watzinger, which was also split on its ethnic attitude during World War II. The family of Růžena Vyhnálková lived in the so-called "distillery," Since 1934, Růžena was attending a Czech school. She kept going there until 1938. She didn't speak German – only Czech was being spoken at home – only her parents sometimes spoke in German to each other. In September 1938, Moravský Krumlov was incorporated into the German Reich and the Czech school was closed down. The journey to the nearest Czech school in the neighboring village would take her about an hour. Therefore, her mother decided that her daughter will attend a German school. After leaving school in 1943, she worked as nursemaid in a Czech-German family. She witnessed the bombing of Moravský Krumlov, the advent of the Russians and the expulsion of the Germans. She also narrates about the last Count Kinsky.

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Moravský Krumlov, Chateau

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Moravský Krumlov, (German: Mährisch Kromau), is located thirty kilometers south-west of Brno on the River Rokytná. The river’s meanders offered good opportunities for settlement, which is why a district castle was built there. It was destroyed and burned down after 1146 as part of the struggles between two members of the House of Přemysl – Prince Vladislav and Prince Conrad, the appanage prince of Znojmo. The castle was rebuilt to a Renaissance chateau under the ownership of the House of Lipá who minded the development of the town in the 16th century. After the Battle of Bílá Hora, the House of Lipá was deprived of its property which was forfeited by the emperor Ferdinand II. sold Moravský Krumlov to the House of Liechtenstein in 1625. When Prince Rudolf Lichtenstein died in 1908, his relative Count Kinsky took possession of Krumlov. Moravský Krumlov became a part of Germany in 1938 thanks to the politics of Rudolf Kinsky, an admirer of the Nazi policy, even though the town’s German population accounted for just about one-third of the citizens. The Kinsky family fled the chateau to Austria in 1945. The town’s historical nucleus was severely damaged at the end of the World War II, yet it was later declared an urban heritage site. In 1950 the town was loaned the Slavic Epopee paintings made by the native of the nearby Ivančice, Alfons Mucha.

On this place

Christmas with the Kinsky family

Růžena Zouharová

Krumlov after the war

Růžena Zouharová