23 May 2013 Treasure from the house of Heydrich's assassin

An important historical treasure was found during the reconstruction of the family home of Heydrich's assassin Jan Kubiš in Dolní Vilémovice. Specifically, it was photographs, certificates and letters. For historians, this discovery was of great importance, because they still lack enough information.

The objects were located under the stairs to the attic. They were found by workers during the reconstruction of Kubiš's family home. The repairs were necessary because the property was in a very poor condition.
The reconstruction was decided by the municipality of Dolní Vilémovice, which acquired the house as a gift in 2009.

As the house was in its original state, the municipality decided to set up a museum there. The reconstruction started in 2013, when a public collection managed to raise 2 million crowns. Paradoxically, the historical objects were located under the stairs, which were originally not supposed to be repaired.

"We were hoping that we could discover some things left by the Kubiš family. Still nothing came. It wasn't until we came to the stairs to the attic. We didn't want to repair them at all, we wanted to leave them original. There was only one step we didn't like, it was rotten. So we tore it off and the treasure was hidden under it," said Jitka Boučková, the mayor of Dolní Vilémovice.

Workers found a dismissal certificate, a house certificate and personal correspondence under the stairs. Also hidden in the hiding place were a non-commissioned officer's bayonet, cartridge cases and photographs of friends and colleagues from the army. Historians were thrilled with the discovery. They had almost no information about Kubiš's life before the war. The parts of the uniform found (badge, lapel pin or buttons) were the most appreciated.

Photo gallery here

Apparently, the items were hidden during the period when Kubiš was in the territory of the Protectorate and the family did not want to reveal the soldier's identity. In fact, none of the found pictures shows Kubiš. Only his army friends from 1937 and 1938 are in the photos. According to the then director of the Military Historical Institute, Ales Knížek, the found objects are forfor further research and understanding of this great son of the Czech nation.

Kubiš was a hero of the anti-Nazi resistance and one of the paratroopers who successfully executed the attack on the acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich in 1942 as part of Operation Anthropoid.

Details of the assassination can be found here:

Jan Kubiš's house is now a museum of paratroopers. A permanent exhibition has been placed in the house by the Military History Institute. In its first year of tours, the museum was visited by thousands of visitors. One of the visitors even came all the way from Tokyo. If you would like to visit the museum, you can find all the information on the Vilémovice website.

Sources: https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/, https://obecdolnivilemovice.cz/, www.idnes.cz