“While the screw was beating me, he accidentally struck my glass eye and it fell out. You should have seen the expression in his face... !”
Leopold Färber was born in Stará Halič in Slovakia on October 31, 1928. He grew up in Boskovice. His father was a Jew, his mother was a devout Catholic. Their mixed marriage saved them from their deportation to the annihilation camp. As a boy, Leopold, nicknamed Hurvínek, acted as a messenger between the anti-Nazi resistance groups. After 1948 he decided to carry on with the resistance activities. He founded a group with his two brothers Josef and František Marek, who i.a. wanted to damage the Police School with their secretly acquired explosives. However, the explosives blew up by an unlucky coincidence in the Färbers' flat and Leopold lost one of his eyes. The State Security arrested him together with Josef Marek in May 1950. It was shortly after the children from his Scouts' group had distributed leaflets saying 'Death to Communism!' around the neighborhood. Leopold Färber didn't know about that, he only inspired the children by his narrations about the war. The Court sentenced him to sixteen years in jail; he served eight years of his sentence. After that he worked at road constructions for many years, he was finally allowed to arrange shop-windows.
