A wild escape led to a full life in Minnesota

Jerry Vnoucek, a tailor at Dayton's for 34 years, came here after fleeing from Communist Czechoslovakia.

By SARAH LEMAGIE, Star Tribune

Last update: November 14, 2009 - 11:26 PM

Jaroslav (Jerry) Vnoucek loved telling stories about his youth in Czechoslovakia. He remembered a lot of the history that he witnessed -- the names of political leaders, the events that led up to World War II -- and he was happy to relive it, decades later, for relatives sitting around the dinner table in Minnesota.

Some people would get up after the meal, but "a couple of us would sit there and listen, even though we'd heard it 50 times," said his daughter-in-law, Susan Vnoucek. "I would ask him one question, and he'd say, 'Susie, I tell you.' And you knew it would be an hour."

Vnoucek spent part of the day on Nov. 6 fishing -- a favorite hobby -- with one of his sons. Later that evening, he suffered a brain aneurysm. He died two days later at age 88.

His stories were good: Pranks he played as a child. The time he got run over by horses.

One of his favorites, though, was the story about how he and his wife, Trudy, escaped to West Germany -- and eventually the United States -- when faced with the prospect of forced labor after the war.

A tailor at Dayton's for 34 years, Vnoucek kept in touch with relatives in Europe after settling in Crystal. His family sent letters and holiday cards with photos, and relatives on both sides of the ocean have visited each other.

He was born in 1921 in Reisch- dorf, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), the eldest of four children and the son of a tax collector.

As a young tailor, he traveled from town to town by bicycle to look for work. He ultimately found a job in Kraslice, a town in the Sudetenland where he met his future wife.

Edeltraud Riedl, later called Trudy, came from a family of German heritage, while Vnoucek grew up speaking Czech. The couple knew that life would be difficult for them in their homeland even after the war ended. "It was frowned upon for Czechs to marry Germans," Susan Vnoucek said.

The Nazis had been defeated, but the Communists soon took power. "Trudy even talks about how the Communists came in and took their milk cow," Susan said.

Threat: the coal mine

Events came to a head one day when Vnoucek was called in by authorities and told he'd been assigned to a job that he didn't want. When he balked, he was told it was either that or working in a coal mine, his daughter-in-law said. "They had no choice. They had to leave immediately," she said.

The two escaped on foot to East Germany, then made the dangerous trip to West Germany. Vnoucek had a pistol, and he later said that if they had been caught, he would have shot his wife and then himself.

They waded across a creek, having been warned by some local boys to avoid a nearby bridge guarded by soldiers. Instead, they went into the water, following the path of some power lines. Even so, the sound of whistling bullets accompanied the couple's final dash across an open field to the West.

After their escape, the couple spent more than two years in camps for displaced people. They married in Bavaria in 1948.

With the help of a Czech doctor in the Twin Cities, the Vnouceks sailed for New York in 1950 with their infant son. When Jerry caught sight of the Statue of Liberty, "He didn't know quite what it was, but he took a picture of it," Susan said. The family still has the snapshot.

When the Vnouceks arrived in the Twin Cities, they were nearly penniless and had been on a bus for days. The doctor's family got them cleaned up and took them out to the family's lake home in the west metro area.

At that point, said Vnoucek's younger son, Steve, "My dad basically felt like he'd died and gone to heaven."

In addition to his wife and sons Jerry and Steve, Vnoucek is survived by a sister, Olga Ortova, and five grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Services have been held.

Recent South Metro stories

A noise - a bang! - a deadly cloud - November 14, 2009

A noise - a bang! - a deadly cloud - The probe continues into an accident that killed one and injured a second truck driver at a Rosemount fertilizer plant. More

Share your photos - November 14, 2009

Share your photos - If your organization has a special occasion or event to share, send us a photo and write a short caption. You can e-mail photos to sbarnes@startribune.com. More