From the RAF to a uranium mine: The lost story of Silvestr Müller
Silvestr Müller was a Czechoslovak pilot who fought in France during World War II and later served in the Royal Air Force in Britain. After the war, he returned home, only to be arrested by the communist regime in 1949 and sent to the Vojna labour camp near Příbram, where he died in a uranium mine accident five years later. For decades, his British family had no idea what had happened to him. That finally changed when his granddaughter, Louise, came across his name online, more than 70 years later.
I caught up with Louise during her recent visit to Czechia to talk about how she pieced together his story, and what it was like to finally stand in the place where his life ended.
Can you take us back to the moment when you first came across your grandfather's name? How exactly did that happen? I believe it was on the website of the Příbram Mining Museum.
"Exactly. For many years, we had tried to find him and looked through various channels to locate him, but we were never successful. Then, about five months ago, I was looking at a wider family tree and thought, I’ll try one more time.
“I put in his name and his birthday, and immediately the page from the museum came up. My understanding is that they had only put that page live on the museum website about a year ago.
"So it was really a matter of timing that brought me to it. I emailed the museum directly, and they put me in touch with the director, Josef Velfl. We then started discussing everything I knew, everything he knew, and began piecing it all together to get a fuller picture of the story."
What prompted you to look into your family's history? Was it just curiosity, or was it something you came across by accident when searching your family’s documents?
"It had always been a big mystery to us. My father was around a year and a half old when my grandfather came back here, and he just never returned. We didn’t understand why. Our question was always: why didn’t he get in touch at some point? Why didn’t he ever reach out again?
"Especially as communication became easier over the years, we assumed he would be able to find us or that we could find him, but we just didn’t know. My grandmother assumed he had simply left her, so she was sad and upset, and probably a little angry, because she didn’t know the real story."
How did your grandmother and grandfather meet? What was the occasion?
“It had always been a big mystery to us. My father was around a year and a half old when my grandfather came back here, and he just never returned.”
"They were both stationed at an RAF camp in the south of England, and they met there. It was at a dance one night with all the other soldiers and army personnel. They married fairly quickly, I believe.
"My grandmother was a nurse in the army. She was Irish and had moved to the UK to work as a nurse. She was trained in mental health nursing but, at the time, she was nursing soldiers — and that’s how they met."
So how much did your family know about Silvestr before this discovery? How much did your grandmother speak about him?
"We knew that he was her true love. She remarried a few years later, but she always said that he was the one true love of her life and that she always missed him."
"She didn’t speak about him much. I think she tried not to hurt my father or cause any upset, so we really knew almost nothing. It was a mystery. We had a couple of photographs, their wedding photo and one of him in uniform. We knew he had worked for the RAF, but that was really all we knew."
Silvestr is quite an unusual name, so I assume once you came across the name on the website of the Příbram Mining Museum, you knew immediately that it was your grandfather?
"Yeah. They had some photos on the museum website, and I recognized him straight away. I then checked with my parents to confirm, and immediately they said, ‘That’s him.’ So yes, they recognized him from the photos."
What was your, and especially your father's, reaction when you realized what had really happened to him?
"It was horrible. A big shock. There was so much information to take in, and we still had many questions. It was just one page on a website, so although we learned a bit, I had many more questions for the museum director, not just about my grandfather, but also about Czech history in that period.
"I wasn’t fully aware of what had happened during that time, and my father didn’t know much about the Czech history either or how bad things had become. It was a real shock and a deep sadness, that he never knew his father and what had happened to him. Just really, really sad."
The reason for your visit is that you’ve visited the place where your grandfather was imprisoned and where he lost his life. How did it feel to be there and see the place?
“‘Cathartic’ is the word I would use in English. It brought closure to a story we had never known the end of.”
"Yes, it was very emotional. We spent a lot of time there — around five hours. The museum staff were amazing; they took us to all the different areas. We found out what he had been mining, how he had worked, exactly where he had lived, where he died. We also visited a bunker where he had served time as punishment during his imprisonment.
"It was a lot to take in during one day. My father is over 80 now, so it was quite overwhelming, and he was tired. But it was very moving to light some candles and leave some flowers. ‘Cathartic’ is the word I would use in English. It brought closure to a story we had never known the end of."
I understand you also found some letters that Silvestr sent to Great Britain after he was imprisoned. Does that mean your grandmother actually knew and chose not to tell your father?
"We’re not completely sure, but she did receive a letter, which we have a copy of. We now understand from the museum that the letter was smuggled out from where he was imprisoned, possibly via another miner, since the prisoners also worked alongside civilian miners.
"The letter has always confused us because it doesn’t mention that he was in prison. It only says how much he misses the family and how he wants to see them again. But there is no mention of his situation at all.
"So we’re not sure if my grandmother replied or if he received anything back. But the fact that she kept that letter all these years, along with his photographs, shows that it meant something to her. So yes, it’s very meaningful to have that."
And the letter wasn’t the only discovery during your visit to the museum. You also found out that he had another daughter. How did it feel to be confronted with this part of the story that you must have been completely unaware of?
"Yes, that was very strange. And also to find out that she is alive and well and lives in Dortmund, I believe, in Germany. We now have her address and plan to write to her, send her photos of our family, and hopefully hear from her too.
"It was interesting to learn that she is fully aware of who her father was and what happened to him. So it was quite a surreal experience, but also very exciting, especially since my father is an only child and now he has a sister. That’s nice.”
At the age of 80…
“Yes, he’s 80 — and she is 78, I believe. It’s hard to describe. This isn’t something that happens every day. So yes, we’re very excited. We have more family."
I understand you also donated some documents and items to the museum. Can you tell us what they were?
"Yes, we had the marriage certificate of my grandmother and grandfather. My grandmother also had a Czech passport, even though she never came here. We believe the intention was for her and my father to move here with Silvestr once he had settled, which obviously never happened. But all those documents we found, we’ve now given to the museum."
This is your first visit to the Czech Republic. Did this journey and the discoveries you made here change the way your family sees its identity? Do you now feel more connected to this country? Are you planning to visit again?
"Yes, definitely. I’ve loved coming here. It does feel a little bit like home — it’s a strange feeling. Everyone at the museum has been so wonderful and kind, so it’s been really lovely to meet them. This has been a great experience for me.
"I feel like I can now keep in touch with them directly and have an ongoing relationship. It’s such a beautiful country, and we’ve really enjoyed our time here. We’ve seen a lot of Prague during our week-long stay, but I definitely want to come back and see more of the country."
We should also stress that your grandfather was actually born in Slovakia, wasn’t he?
"Yes, that’s right. We didn’t realize that until we found all the additional information. We had always assumed he was from Prague because that’s what my grandmother used to mention. But we never knew what part of the country he was from or born in.
"We don’t know anything about his family. We don’t know about his parents, or whether he had any siblings. We just don’t know. But maybe now that we have more details, that’s something we can begin to discover."
Okay, thank you very much for coming and talking to us.
"Thank you for having me."
