“In the first place we jumped upon Russia, but as for concluding trade agreements, it was very difficult. Very difficult, because the people have been already so trained that they would not budge a single millimeter from their plan. If something was not part of their plan, you could talk your mouth off and they would not budge. Even if we got drunk together with them, and I don’t know what else, it was of no use. So what remained was Mongolia. We traveled there and we discovered furs and venison. But the hunting there was no fun. They used those small military vehicles for it. They attached a machine gun on top, surrounded a herd of deer and shot them all. All the meat thus arrived shredded to pieces.”
“They were accused (Dr. Trčka and other representatives who became undesirable) of having collaborated with the Nazis. It was after the war; they arrested him, and they shot him the following day. From then on, his position was staffed with pre-selected people. These trials were conducted on purpose. From what I know from my acquaintances, this Dr. Trčka was a schoolmate of my aunt’s. He gave me a recommendation for the job in the Czechoslovak Grain Association. He really did actively support the families who had been arrested by the Gestapo, and it was not difficult at all to find evidence for it.”
“Then there was the deportation. That was quite a something, I tell you. What I say is that all this deportation was a fraud, because it was women and children who were deported. Men were on the front. If you only could see the looting, trucks full of stuff carrying it to the interior. There were fully loaded trucks with things that had been looted from German houses.”
Miroslav Berkovský was born October 25, 1916 at the estate of prince Paar in Lhota-Pleš, where his father worked as an administrator. In 1921 the family moved to the estate in Vřesná. In 1931 Miroslav Berkovský began studying the trade academy in Jindřichův Hradec. Immediately after passing his graduation examination he was accepted as a trainee in a paint-producing factory in Ústí nad Labem. In February 1935 he was hired as an official in the Czechoslovak Grain Association in Prague. In 1943 he married and started a family. The Czechoslovak Grain Association was renamed Obilosvaz after WWII, but due to the progressing political changes it was gradually being reorganized and after the coup d’état in February 1948 it became disbanded and transformed into regional branch offices. Miroslav Berkovský then became the head of the planning department at the Ministry of Agriculture, and later he became the deputy to the director of the state-owned company Zemědělské Potřeby (Equipment for Agriculture). The company’s activity included foreign trade as well. He retired in 1978.
