The Czech Mint represents another woman - Dagmar Šimková - on a silver medal from the cycle entitled National Heroes.

Dagmar Šimková was twenty-three years old when she was arrested by the State Security. She distributed leaflets that ridiculed communist presidents and hid two military deserters she wanted to help across borders. The girl had a number of compelling reasons for this - the communist regime confiscated her family house due to her "bourgeois origins" and forbade her to study at university. The court sentenced her to eight years in prison for "anti-state activities". However, the prosecutor wanted the sentence to be increased to fifteen years. Nevertheless, the convict confronted her tormentors and ensured them how sorry she was that she had not been able to do more against the regime. She was held in several cruel prisons, and after escaping and being captured, her sentence was extended to eighteen years. Even after her release from prison, her humiliation did not end. She had to pay a debt to the state for refusing to work as a Catholic in prison on Sundays … Dagmar naturally became involved in revolutionary events in 1968. She co-founded the organization of political prisoners K 231, but she realized that change would not happen in the end. She decided to flee to Australia before further imprisonment. There she graduated from two universities - liberal arts, archeology, ancient history, psychology and sociology. She completed a course for mannequins and stuntmen, learned the technique of making enamel paintings, worked as a therapist in prison and joined Amnesty International. Finally she wrote a book. The autobiography entitled We Were There Too deals with the atrocities committed by the distorted regime, but also with the great will to survive, the friendship of the suffering people and the desperate attempt to remain human even in inhumane conditions.

"On the reverse side, behind the bars, there is a flying seagull - a symbol of freedom, the cry of which the convict had heard before the prison gate was closed and then again at liberty in Australia. Number 23 with stylized petals expresses the period of youth, the number 14 expresses the years suffered in prison and the number 29 expresses the life years after release. In the upper part of the inscription there is a text THE TIME UNTIED THE CHAIN OF EVIL - a quote from the above-mentioned book, which recalls the cruelty of the prison environment during the socialism era, “ explains the academic sculptor Jiří Dostál. "The obverse side is dominated by a portrait of Dagmar Šimková inspired by a photograph taken before she had been arrested. In the upper part of the composition in the inscription there is a part of the bold speech that Dagmar Šimková gave to the jury during her imprisonment - I AM SORRY THAT I COULD NOT DO MORE AGAINST THIS REGIME, “ adds the author of the silver medal.

The medal includes a narrative packaging that contains a treatise written by an expert on modern Czech history PhDr. Petra Koury, Ph.D. Remember that you can store the complete series of National Heroes in a practical collector's box.