Vinzenzia Cikanek (geb. Kundela)

Vinzenzia Kundela was born the legitimate daughter of dairy farmers in Krzepiz in Bohemia [now the Czech Republic]. She attended a German-Czech mixed-language elementary school. After finishing school, she worked on her parents' farm until 1904, then went to Vienna and Klosterneuburg-Weidling as a maid. In 1909, she married the basket weaver Thomas Hrabanek, moved to Hollabrunn with him and had a daughter with him. He runs a basket weaving business in Hollabrunn. Thomas Hrabanek dies in the First World War.

In 1923, she marries the master basket weaver Franz Cikanek senior and takes his name. From this point on, he runs her late husband's business. Together they have a daughter and a son Franz Cikanek jun.

Former SDAP member Franz Cikanek sen. is a staunch opponent of National Socialism and joins the Patriotic Front in 1937.

On March 12, 1938, Vinzenzia Cikanek witnesses the downfall of a free and independent Austria when the National Socialist German Reich invades Austria.

Together with her daughters and Franz Cikanek jun, Vinzenzia Cikanek and Franz Cikanek Sr. listen several times a week from spring 1940 to April 1943 to the German-language and Czech broadcasts on English radio, the Swiss station 'Beromünster' and, until the collapse of France, a French station, the so-called 'Feindsender'.

Their son passes on what he hears and what his parents translate from Czech to his classmates at school. Classmates pass it on to their parents, who report it to the Gestapo.

By the end of April 1943, rumors are already circulating in Hollabrunn that an arrest by the Gestapo is imminent, which is why the Cikanek family stops listening to 'enemy broadcasts'.

On 10 May 1943, Vinzenzia Cikanek, Franz Cikanek Sr, Franz Cikanek Jr and the two daughters are arrested by the Gestapo. The two daughters are soon released, the other family members are put on trial.

In a trial before the special court on August 17, 1943 Vinzenzia Cikanek is sentenced to five years in prison for broadcasting crimes. Her husband is sentenced to death in the same trial and executed on October 8, 1943 at the Vienna Regional Court. In a further trial before the Special Court on August 29, 1944, Franz Cikanek Jr. was sentenced to one year in prison for defeating the military.