Jaroslav Švarc

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Jaroslav Švarc (1914–1942)

Jaroslav Švarc (born May 11, 1914 in Velký Újezd , † June 18, 1942 in Prague ) was a soldier in the Czechoslovak Army and a member of the TIN paratrooper command . The command was charged with carrying out an assassination attempt on Emanuel Moravec , Minister for Education and Public Enlightenment in the Protectorate Government and a collaborator with the German National Socialists .

youth

The father, František Švarc, worked as a carpenter, the mother's name was Anna, nee Tylichová. Because of his weak physical constitution, Jaroslav did not take over his father's profession, but trained as a confectioner . In his hometown he founded a department of the Sokol gymnastics association .

In October 1936 he was drafted into the army. He served first in the 23rd  Infantry Regiment in Trnava in Slovakia and then in the 13th Infantry Regiment in Šumperk in Moravia. Here he graduated from a non-commissioned officer school. From August 1937 he was deployed in the 4th border regiment on the border wall in Hlučín . After the Munich Agreement , Czechoslovakia had to cede the border regions to the Third Reich . The 4th border regiment was disbanded and Jaroslav Švarc was sent to the Carpathian Ukraine in November 1938 as the leader of a machine gun division for border surveillance . In March 1939 he was released from active service. After the occupation , he lived with his parents and worked in agriculture. Then he decided to fight Germany in the Czechoslovak army in exile in France .

In exile

His first attempt to leave occupied Czechoslovakia across the border with Poland at the end of 1939 failed. In January 1940 he tried again and then got to France via Slovakia , Hungary , Yugoslavia and Greece , where he joined the Czechoslovak army in exile in Agde in March 1940 and took part in the fighting for France . He narrowly escaped capture by Germany. On June 27, 1940 he boarded the ship Rod el Farag in the port of Sète and reached Liverpool on July 13, 1940. He was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Battalion.

In the summer of 1941 he signed up for special training and completed a basic sabotage course at STS 26 in Scotland and parachute training with STS 51 in RAF Ringway near Manchester with four jumps. In October 1942 he was promoted to rotný ( Staff Sergeant ) and transferred to the Czechoslovak training base STS 2 in Bellasis near Dorking . STS ( Special Training School ) was a facility of the British Special Operations Executive during World War II .

Operation TIN

Memorial plaque on the Church of St. Cyril and Method in Prague.

Jaroslav Švarc and Ludvík Cupal were used by the Czechoslovak government- in- exile in London in the TIN paratrooper command. It was her mission to carry out an assassination attempt on Emanuel Moravec, Minister for Education and Public Enlightenment of the Protectorate Government and most influential collaborator with the National Socialists.

The two paratroopers were dropped on the night of April 29-30 , 1942 near the village of Věšín near Rožmitál in Central Bohemia . Together with them, three other Czechoslovak paratroopers (Václav Kindl, Bohuslav Grabovský, Vojtěch Lukaštík) were released from the INTRANSITIV command . Švarc injured on landing and could not establish contact with his partner Cupal. He made his own way to Prague via Pilsen , hiding in different places and trying to heal his injury. After the assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich , he sought protection in the crypt of the Prague Orthodox Church of St. Cyril and Method . There he died and six other Czechoslovak paratroopers with him (including members of Operation Anthropoid ) after several hours of fighting the Gestapo on June 18, 1942. In the hopeless situation he shot himself.

After the war

In December 1945 he was promoted to nadporučík (first lieutenant ) in memoriam . His name is on the plaque on the Prague Church of St. Cyril and Methodius, on a memorial to the fallen in his hometown and on a plaque on the MO-S 18 border wall in Hlučín.

In 2002 he was promoted to podplukovník ( lieutenant colonel ) in memoriam .

Awards and honors

  • 1943 - Pamětní medaile československé armády v zahraničíPamětní medaile československé armády v zahraničí se štítky Francie a Velká Británie (Commemorative medal of the Czechoslovak army abroad with the badge of France and Great Britain)
  • 1945 - Čs. válečný kříž 1939Československý válečný kříž 1939 ( Czechoslovak War Cross 1939 )
  • 1949 - Čs. vojenský řád “Za svobodu” I. stupněZlatá hvězda Československého vojenského řádu Za svobodu (Gold Star of the Czechoslovak Military Order For Freedom)
  • 1968 - Řád rudé zástavyŘád rudé zástavy (Order of the Red Banner)
  • 2010 - CZE State Defense Cross.svgKříž obrany státu ministra obrany České republiky (Cross of State Defense of the Minister of Defense of the Czech Republic)

See also

literature

  • Martin Reichl: Cesty osudu . Svět křídel, Cheb 2004, ISBN 80-86808-04-1 (Czech).
  • Ludmila Habichová: Výcvik československých parašutistů ve Velké Británii (1940–1945). Diplomová práce. Západočeská univerzita v Plzni , Faculty filozofická, Plzeň 2016, p. 27–34, 46–47, 53 (Czech, 103 p., Online [PDF]). Resumé in English on pages 80–81.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Švarc, Jaroslav on the server valka.cz (Czech).
  2. ↑ a b ŠVARC Jaroslav , Čs. váleční parašutisté 1941–1945 , Knihovna Akademie věd ČR (Czech).
  3. ↑ Ludmila Habichová: Výcvik československých parašutistů ve Velké Británii (1940–1945). Diplomová práce. Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, Faculty filozofická, Plzeň 2016, p. 27–34 (Czech, 103 pp., Online [PDF]). Resumé in English on pages 80–81.
  4. ↑ Udělení resortních vyznamenání , Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic, May 8, 2010 (Czech).

Web links

Commons : Jaroslav Švarc  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Švarc, Jaroslav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czechoslovak soldier
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Velký Újezd
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1942
Place of death Prague